Current Analytical Chemistry - Volume 2, Issue 1, 2006

Quantification of gene expression is the sine qua non in understanding how the components of a biological cell or an organism change and interact following external or internal perturbations. Analytical techniques that combine stable isotopic protein and peptides labelling and mass spectrometric analysis are becoming increasingly popular in determining protein abundance. The common motif, which recurs in these Read More

Atmospheric pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (AP-MALDI) was first introduced in 1999. In the last few years, there has been a rapid growth in publications describing the development and application of APMALDI to the mass spectrometric analysis of peptides, polymers and oligosaccharides. This short review discusses recent advances in AP-MALDI, focusing on the analysis of biomolecules and the relative pe Read More

This review article deals with recent development in the analyses of proteins and DNA by capillary electrophoresis (CE) and microchip CE (MCE) using polymer solutions. Polymer solutions are commonly prepared from linear polymers such as linear polyacrylamide, poly(ethylene oxide), hydroxyethyl cellulose, and poly(vinylpyrrolidone), which possess the advantages of low fluorescence background, self-coating capability Read More

Affinity capillary electrophoresis (ACE) is a versatile analytical technique that has been shown to be an efficient and accurate tool to probe non-covalent interactions and to determine binding and dissociation constants between receptors and ligands. ACE uses as its basis the change in migration time of a receptor upon binding to a ligand generally found in the electrophoresis buffer. Subsequent analysis using non-intera Read More

This paper reviews recent advances and the key strategies in microchip capillary electrophoresis (CE) with electrochemical detection (ECD) for separating and detecting a variety of environmental pollutants. The subjects covered include the fabrication of microfluidic chips, sample pretreatments, ECD, typical applications of microchip CE with ECD in environmental analysis, and future prospects. It is expected that mi Read More

The determination of superoxide anion (O2 .-) is of great physiological and pathological importance since O2 .- is considered to be involved in the etiology of aging, cancer, and progressive neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease. The determination of the local concentration of O2 .- has been a relatively challenging analytical problem because of the low concentration, high reactivity and short lifetime of O2 .- in Read More

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) hold immense promise as versatile fluorescent probes in biological staining and diagnostics. Compared with their organic dyes counterparts, the ideal optical properties of QDs (e.g., high photobleaching threshold, characteristic narrow and symmetric fluorescent spectra, size-tunable emission and simultaneous excitation) offer a possibility to tag biomolecules in ultra-sensitive biological Read More

At present, proteomics that promises deep understanding of genomic functions is developing rapidly. Proteomics at single cell level represents new challenges that greatly call for technique innovation in current analytical chemistry. In this mini-review, the concept of single cell proteomics (SCP) is clarified. Recent advancement on strategy and methodology of SCP is reviewed, with emphasis on micro-separation technique improv Read More

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) affect the internal endocrine functions in human and thus effective analytical methods have been developed in recent years. In particular, quantification of EDCs in human biological fluids is essential to obtain direct information about the health risk associated with exposure to these compounds. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has often been applied to the measure Read More

During last years the application of chemical analysis to historical, artistic and archaeological specimens has gained more and more importance. The integration of scientific studies with information derived from stylistic or historic knowledge is really useful for the purposes of conservation, authentication, dating and attribution. Since the samples under examination are unique and irreplaceable the specimens must be submi Read More