This paper reports a protocol that improves the resolving power of isoelectric focusing (IEF) in a polymeric microfluidic chip. This method couples several stages of IEF in series by first focusing proteins in a straight channel using broad-range ampholytes and then refocusing segments of the first channel into secondary channels that branch from the first one at T-junctions. Experiments demons...

Isoelectric focusing (IEF) is a powerful approach in separations of zwitterionic substances such as proteins, peptides and amino acids. It is important in proteomic research. Generally, in IEF, carrier ampholytes (CAs) are necessary to establish a stable pH gradient. However, CAs also bring attendant problems such as a decrease in detection sensitivity and suppression of ionization of analytes ...

level: interMediAte Analyzing charge variants of therapeutic proteins is critical for characterizing and monitoring quality attributes of antibodies. Charge variants include deamidation, formation of N-terminal pyroglutamate, aggregation, isomerization, sialylated glycans, antibody fragmentation, and glycation at the lysine residues. In some cases, such changes affect binding, biological activi...

Profiling cellular proteome is critical to understanding signal integration during cell fate determination. In this study, the capability of capillary isoelectric focusing (cIEF) immunoassays to detect post-translational modifications (PTM) of protein isoforms is demonstrated. cIEF immunoassays exhibit protein detection sensitivity at up to 5 orders of magnitude higher than traditional methods....

The autoxidation of horse myoglobin was studied in the presence or absence of catalase (EC 1.11.1.6) and/or superoxide dismutase (EC 1.15.1.1) at various pH values (6.6-7.8). Changes in the percentages of oxymyoglobin and metmyoglobin during the reaction were analysed by means of isoelectric focusing on Ampholine gel plates. Oxymyoglobin was decreased in a first-order manner, with an accompanyi...

This paper reports the application of ampholyte-based isoelectric focusing in poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) using methylcellulose (MC) to reduce electroosmosis and peak drift. Although the characteristics of PDMS make it possible to fabricate microfluidic chips using soft lithography, unstable electroosmotic flow (EOF) and cathodic drift are significant problems when this medium is used. This p...