Device and Method for Accurate Sample Injection in Analytical Chemistry
Tech ID: 30290 / UC Case 2017-234-0
SUMMARY
Researchers in the UCLA Departments of Bioengineering and Medical and Molecular Pharmacology and the UCSF Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences have developed a novel microvalve injector for capillary electrophoresis (CE) that improves injection repeatability and consistency.
BACKGROUND
Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a chemical separation technique used to separate, identify, and quantify analytes. Unlike high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), CE can be miniaturized into microfluidic chips, where it can be used to analyze synthesized radioactive tracers.Additionally, as compared to HPLC, CE has a higher efficiency, higher resolution, and lower sample and reagent consumption rate.Despite the advantages of CE, its use is not as widespread as that of HPLC because CE has inferior sample injection reproducibility and repeatability.
INNOVATION
Researchers in the UCLA Departments of Bioengineering and Medical and Molecular Pharmacology and the UCSF Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences have developed a novel microvalve injector for capillary electrophoresis (CE) that improves injection repeatability and consistency. The injector eliminates known biases in both electrokinetic and hydrodynamic injections and is straightforward to implement with standard microfluidic fabrication techniques.The injector has numerous CE-based applications, ranging from sample purity analysis to integration into fully-inclusive lab-on-a-chip platforms, and can potentially be used with other analytical techniques and instruments.
APPLICATIONS
Pharmaceutical and radiopharmaceutical purity analysis
Detection of disease biomarkers
Environmental pollutant monitoring
Could be integrated into lab-on-a-chip systems
ADVANTAGES
Allows for highly repeatable sample injection
Straightforward implementation
Miniaturized platform and automated system
Lower sample and reagent consumption
RELATED MATERIALS
S. Cheung, J. Ly, M. Lazari, S. Sadeghi, P. Y. Keng, and R. M. van Dam, “The separation and detection of PET tracers via capillary electrophoresis for chemical identity and purity analysis,” J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal., vol. 94, pp. 12–18, Jun. 2014.
Noel S. Ha, Jimmy Ly, Jason Jones, Shilin Cheung, R. Michael van Dam. Novel volumetric method for highly repeatable injection in microchip electrophoresis. Analytica Chimica Acta 985: 129-140, 2017.
PATENT STATUS
Patent Pending