Capillary Electrophoresis in Undergraduate Education

购买毛细管电泳仪将使本科生熟悉最先进的电泳法，并熟悉计算机化的数据采集和仪器控制。使用该仪器的实验将取代或大大增强目前在两门高级化学课程--仪器分析和普通生物化学--中进行的实验。该仪器还将用于本科生的研究。在仪器分析中，将对商业产品的有机酸组成进行分析，展示CE在小分子分析中的有效性。本实验将取代用离子色谱法测定自来水中无机离子组成的实验。在普通生物化学课程中，CE最初将用于增加两个新的实验：1)蛋白质的酶和化学消化，然后用游离区CE分离和定量；2)用亲和毛细管电泳法分析蛋白质与底物的结合，然后用Scatchard方法对数据进行数学处理。这些实验将允许学生接触到额外的常规和计算生物技术。CE在本科教学实验室中的重要性可能会越来越大。我们打算通过出版期刊和在区域和国家科学会议上发表演讲来分享我们的经验成果。

The purchase of a capillary electrophoresis (CE) instrument will enable undergraduate students to become familiar with state of the art electrophoresis methodology and with computerized data acquisition and instrument control. Experiments using the instrument will replace or greatly enhance experiments presently performed in two upper level chemistry courses, Instrumental Analysis and General Biochemistry. The instrument will also be used in undergraduate research. In Instrumental Analysis, commercial products will be analyzed for organic acid composition, demonstrating the usefulness of CE in the analysis of small molecules. This experiment will replace one in which ion chromatography is used to determine the inorganic ion composition of tapwater. In General Biochemistry, CE will initially be used to add two new experiments to the laboratory course: 1) enzymatic and chemical digestion of a protein followed by separation and quantitation by free zone CE and 2) a protein-substrate binding analysis by affinity CE techniques followed by mathematical treatment of the data by the method of Scatchard. These experiments will allow the students exposure to both additional conventional and computational biotechniques. It is likely that CE will assume increasing importance in the undergraduate teaching laboratory. We intend to share the results of our experiences both through journal publication and presentations at regional and national scientific meetings.