Microchip electrophoresis and related technologies

Microchip electrophoresis is emerging as a highly promising method for fast analysis with minimum amount of analytes. While this platform has been well recognized, there are many technical challenges remained to be solved in order to broaden its usefulness. In the first part of this presentation, we demonstrate on-chip assays for fast analysis of estrogen related binding cascade to monitor both ligand binding and estrogen responsive element (ERE) binding, which serve as screening assays for steroid-like compounds. The method requires only nano-grams of samples and the run time is within minutes. In the second part of this presentation, the author demonstrates a novel surface modification for a common substrate of microchip electrophoresis, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). We have created a permanently hydrophilic PDMS surfaces using electrostatic self-assembly and chemical cross-linking. Electrokinetic analysis of the coatings in microchannels always exposed to air gave constant electroosmotic flow during the six months that the measurements were done.