Laser-Induced Fluorometry for Capillary Electrophoresis

Laser-induced fluorometry (LIF) has achieved the detection of single molecules, which ranks it among the most sensitive of detection techniques, whereas capillary electrophoresis (CE) is known as a powerful separation method with resolution that is beyond the reach of many other types of chromatography. Therefore, a coupling of LIF with CE has established an unrivaled analytical technique in terms of sensitivity and resolution. CE-LIF has demonstrated excellent performance in bioanalytical chemistry for the high-resolution separation and highly sensitive detection of DNAs, proteins, and small bioactive molecules. This review describes the CE-LIF methods developed by the author's group that include indirect and direct detection using diode lasers, post-column derivatization, and Hadamard transformation, as well as applications to the binding assays of specific DNA immunoassays of proteins and to the determination of anticancer drugs.