Capillary electrophoresis: a new tool in forensic medicine and science

Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) refers to a new instrumental Moreover, forensic samples are often limited in quantity, version of electrophoresis in which separation occurs in a heavily contaminated and should be preserved for further rniniaturised environment with a capillary format. Under investigations. the same general name related separation techniques, more or less orthogonal to current analytical methods, are grouped, which have an extremely wide field of application in the environment of forensic science, medicine and pathology. The origins of CE can be traced back to the optirnisation for instrumental use of the basic electrophoretic principles as they were applied in slab gel protocols. CE uses narrow-bore fused-silica capillary columns to separate a complex array of large and small molecules. The incorporation of typical chromatographic mechanisms, which expanded CE applications to neutral species, provided the grounds for CE to become a versatile and flexible tool in Since the mid 1980s, attention has been paid to CE by some major forensic laboratories at the US Drug Enforcement Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigations, which has resulted in several papers being published in the chemical and forensic literature. Northrop et al. have reviewed these reports as early as 1984 [5]. Universities have also started offering formalised training in CE including a postgraduate course at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA and various other short courses including a meeting dedicated to CE in forensic science held at the University of Verona, Italy. separation science. Thus, it has found widespread applica- This paper aims to offer the reader a short review of the vartion in analytical and biological chemistry, biotechnology ious applications of CE in the main analytical fields of and pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis [la]