Capillary electrophoresis and fluorescence line-narrowing spectroscopy

For release: July 21, 1998

Contacts:
Ryszard Jankowiak, (515) 294-4394
Gerald Small, (515) 294-3859
Saren Johnston, (515) 294-3474

AMES LAB WINS R&D 100 AWARD FOR TECHNIQUE TO FIGHT CANCER

AMES, Iowa -- The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Ames Laboratory has won a 1998 R&D 100 Award for an innovative, on-line technique that may one day help determine an individual's risk of getting cancer from chemical pollutants.

The R&D 100 Awards program, now in its 36th year, honors the top 100 products of technological significance that were marketed or licensed during the previous calendar year. All of the 100 award winners will be recognized at a banquet in Chicago in September.

This year's Ames Laboratory award-winning technology, Capillary Electrophoresis Fluorescence Line-Narrowing Spectroscopy (CE-FLNS), brings to 13 the number of R&D 100 Awards the Lab has won since 1984. CE-FLNS is in good company, as 34 DOE-funded technologies also received 1998 R&D 100 Awards.

"Once again, the scientists and engineers at the Department of Energy laboratories are being recognized by garnering a third of this year's prestigious R&D 100 Awards," says Undersecretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. "This says more clearly than any words can express how the DOE labs serve as an important engine of American innovation."

To develop Ames Lab's R&D 100 winner, Lab researchers Ryszard Jankowiak and Gerald Small combined two well-known analytical methods of CE and FLNS to create one technique that can provide more detailed information on complex biomolecular samples than either standard method can do on its own. The award-winning technology was developed in collaboration with Peter Shields of Janis Research Co. Inc., Wilmington, MA.

"The marriage of CE and FLNS is an exciting addition to the rapidly evolving field concerned with selective detection methods that can provide the information necessary to distinguish between structurally similar molecular compounds," says Jankowiak.

Small adds, "The first important event in the production of cancer is damage of DNA by chemical pollutants. CE-FLNS provides superior analytical resolution for determining the nature of the damage that leads to mutations, which may result in cancerous cells."

CE-FLNS utilizes the ability of CE to separate minute amounts of closely related biological analytes, or compounds. FLNS, a high resolution, fluorescence-based detection method, characterizes the CE-separated samples, further distinguishing between structurally related analytes by laser exciting them to fluoresce and emit line-narrowed spectra.

Fundamental to the CE-FLNS technique is Jankowiak's and Small's unique capillary cryostat that encloses the capillary housing the CE-separated analytes. The capillary cryostat unites the CE and FLNS methods, cooling the analytes for FLNS characterization. Gases and vapors are removed from the outer portion of the cryostat, and inlet and return lines introduce and circulate cryogenic liquids. A continuous flow of liquid helium runs through the cryostat, cooling the centrally positioned capillary and CE-separated molecular analytes to 4.2K (-450 F) in less than one minute. The capillary cryostat and the capillary move automatically in the direction of the capillary axis, allowing the frozen and stationary analytes to be sequentially characterized by FLNS as the capillary passes through the laser-excitation region.

CE-FLNS has been successfully used to identify byproducts from cells and in urine that result from the chemistry between cellular DNA and cancer-producing pollutants, such as those found in cigarette smoke. The identification of these byproducts, called DNA adducts, is key to understanding the pathways cancer-producing pollutants take for their attack on DNA.

"CE-FLNS makes such research easier and misidentification of analytes far less likely," says Jankowiak. "Its on-line capability is especially important when dealing with minute quantities of biological materials."

At this time, CE-FLNS has been used only for research on cancer caused by chemicals, but Jankowiak and Small expect it will find applications in other areas of biological research, as well as forensic science.

Ames Laboratory is operated for the DOE by Iowa State University. The Lab conducts research into areas of national concern that include energy resources, high-speed computer design, environmental cleanup and restoration, and the synthesis and study of new materials.

Last revision: 8/4/98 sd

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