Received on August 22, 2005
Accepted on September 15, 2005
Clinical Analysis by Microchip Capillary Electrophoresis
Sam F.Y. Li 1*
Larry J. Kricka 2
1 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, and the Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Republic of Singapore
2 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
Clinical analysis often requires rapid, automated, and high-throughput analytical systems. Microchip capillary electrophoresis (CE) has the potential to achieve very rapid analysis (typically seconds), easy integration of multiple analytical steps, and parallel operation. Although it is currently still in an early stage of development, there are already many reports in the literature describing the applications of microchip CE in clinical analysis. At the same time, more fully automated and higher throughput commercial instruments for microchip CE are becoming available and are expected to further enhance the development of applications of microchip CE in routine clinical testing. To put into perspective its potential, we briefly compare microchip CE with conventional CE and review developments in this technique that may be useful in diagnosis of major diseases.
