Applying isotachophoresis for transporting, contacting, and separating proteins, DNA, and particles

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The overarching goal of the proposal is to explore novel application areas for microchannel isotachophoresis (ITP). In that context, two different approaches will be followed. On the one hand it should be studied how far steep gradients of ionic surfactants that are created with the help of ITP may be exploited to separate small particles, especially nanoparticles. Particles at an ITP interface should experience surface forces in such concentration gradients. In addition to that, the concentration of an ionic surfactant should also influence the electrophoretic mobility of a particle, yielding different values in front of and behind the ITP interface. The interaction of small particles with ITP interfaces exhibiting a steep concentration gradient of an ionic surfactant will be studied based on fluorescence microscopy. On the other hand, it is planned to study enzymatic reactions with proteins concentrated in ITP zones. Since that way the protein concentration can be increased by many orders of magnitude compared to standard protocols, it can be speculated that enzymatic reactions can be speeded up significantly. In addition to that, since the required amounts of enzyme and substrate are very small, corresponding protocols should be ideally suited for applications in the field of high-throughput screening.