Capillary Electrophoresis in the Undergraduate Curriculum in Chemistry and Biological Chemistry

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Capillary electrophoresis will be incorporated into the undergraduate curriculum in chemistry and biochemistry at Bates College. Electrophoretic techniques are of growing importance in chemical analysis, in large part because of the increase in work at the interface of chemistry and biology. Students at the undergraduate level should therefore be introduced to the theoretical and practical aspects of electrophoresis, and particularly capillary electrophoresis. The instrumentation will be utilized in undergraduate laboratories associated with courses in analytical and biological chemistry. The lab experiences in these courses are project-based, so the experiments that will be added to the curriculum utilizing capillary electrophoresis are ambitious in scope. Examples of the types of projects that will be undertaken include the analysis of neuropeptides in brain tissue, hemoglobin variants in blood, DNA restriction fragment analysis of human DNA, and protein mapping to confirm the effectiveness of protein modification through site selected mutagenesis. Capillary electrophoresis will complement the methods, techniques and experiences that are already provided in undergraduate courses in analytical and biological chemistry. Capillary electrophoresis equipment will also be beneficial to students conducting research projects at the interface of biology and chemistry.