Bioanalytical applications of fast capillary electrophoresis Original Research Article

Capillary electrophoresis is unique among liquid-phase separations in its utility for fast separations. Development of technology such as optical-gating, flow-gating, and microfabrication has allowed separations on the millisecond time scale to be developed. The fast separation times place great demands on the detector systems, frequently requiring detection limits below 1 amol to be practical. The development of such fast separations has opened many new applications not previously feasible for separations-based methods. This has included real time chemical monitoring, detection of short-lived species such as protein conformers or non-covalent complexes, and rapid multi-dimensional separations. Other applications currently being developed include high-throughput assays for clinical laboratories or screening combinatorial libraries. This review covers recent developments in the instrumentation for fast CE and some of the applications.