Cover Picture: Electrophoresis 13'2011

Abstract

AbstractIssue no. 13 is a special issue on “Bioanalysis” consisting of 26 contributions distributed over 6 distinct parts. “Bioanalysis” is an ever‐changing science. As new research and experience broaden our knowledge, advances in technology and methods are required to ensure the success to the applications of this discipline. Although bioanalysis is a basic science in its own right, it borrows freely from and contributes generously to the subject matter and techniques of many biochemical and biomedical disciplines, including analytical chemistry, biochemistry, immunochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, and others of relevance to clinical and preclinical studies.In this special issue of “Bioanalysis” which continues the series of special issues on this topic published annually in ELECTROPHORESIS, we present five invited review articles addressing major areas in this field. They are covering general strategies of proteomic biomarker discovery, techniques for finding and biological significance of plasma membrane biomarkers, immunoaffinity capillary electrophoresis for the determination of cytokines controlling inflammatory processes, capillary and chip electrophoresis for the study of bioparticles like viruses and cells, and HPLC‐MS/MS for the analysis of the detailed chemical structures of gangliosides. The issue includes further a wealth of 21 original research papers. Many of them deal with technical improvements and innovations, including pneumatic valving in microchip electrophoresis, modified isoelectric trapping devices and improved protein loading techniques for 2‐DE. A majority of papers reports on novel applications regarding the analysis of biopolymers or bioactive compounds. These papers cover a broad area. They include analyses of nucleic acids and large glycoconjugates, particularly address protein and entire proteome analyses, and deal with low molecular weight metabolites and drugs. Drug profiling, clinical analysis and metabolomics by means of capillary electrophoresis is most often reported in hyphenation to mass spectrometry. You are invited to consult this special issue from cover to cover as an important reference material in the field of bioanalysis.Featured articles include:The application of magnetic bead hybridization for the recovery and STR amplification of degraded and inhibited forensic DNA ((10.1002/elps.201000694))Combining size‐exclusion chromatography and fully automated chip‐based nanoelectrospray quadrupole time‐of‐flight tandem mass spectrometry for structural analysis of chondroitin/dermatan sulfate in human decorin ((10.1002/elps.201100094))Concentration and fractionation by isoelectric trapping in a micropreparative‐scale multicompartmental electrolyzer having orthogonal pH gradients. Part 1. ((10.1002/elps.elps201100083))Unmasking low‐abundance peptides from human blood plasma and serum samples by a simple and robust two‐step precipitation/immunoaffinity enrichment method ((10.1002/elps.201100069))Is metabolomics reachable? Different purification strategies of human colon cancer cells provide different CE‐MS metabolite profiles ((10.1002/elps.201100019))