When capillary electrophoresis began to achieve scientific recognition in 1981, the simplicity and unique characteristics of the technique prompted many to wonder what future it would be for this technique. Now some answers may be found from the symposium--APCE'98 just ended in Dalian, China, this October.

Compared with the first symposium held in Singapore, 1996, a considerably increasing quantity of the contributions is noted. These contributions, involve not only new developments and advances of CE itself from fundamental concepts to instruments, but also various CE applications in almost every fields of human’s life. It shows clearly that CE, as one of the most powerful means used for analysis and micro-scale separation, has drawn intensive attention nowadays and a bright future just open out.

First of all, the development of CE fundamental study indicates that more and more work is being done to understand CE deeply. The report given by Edward S. Yeung, USA, on the single-molecule studies of surface interactions in CE absorbed much attention. Images of individual protein molecules were recorded as they approached a fused-silica surface for the first time. While this study verified the statistical theory of chromatography, it implied that molecule/surface interactions were considerably more efficient than expected and indicated the relation between single molecule motion and peak tailing in CE. New CE concepts as the one submitted by Tian, Zhaowu, China, of counter-flow focusing (CFF), which was said to be different from all the existing electrophoresis modes including CZE, IEF and ITP, also aroused general attention. Among all the characteristics introduced by its inventors, the most attractive ones probably are: (1) the improvement of minimum detectable concentration because of the longer sample zone injection; (2) the reduction of the electrophoresis channel to several centimeters and working voltage to 300 volts or less. Seven other reports with the titles such as Use of Artificial Neural Networks in CZE, Havel, J., Czech, Prediction of Migration Behavior and Migration Order of Solutes in CE, Ching-Erh Lin, Taipei, China were very welcome, too.

Development in CE instrument is stimulating. Twenty-four papers presented mainly include two big parts: CE system advance and detection advance. Dovichi, Canada, developed a 96- capillary direct-reading laser-induced fluorescence spectrograph, which was designed primarily for fast DNA sequencing, and was used to monitor the fluorescence spectrum from dye-labeled protein samples that had been separated by capillary gel electrophoresis, too. Lin, Bingcheng, China, reported on implementation of space temperature gradient (STG) CE which as a new and promising technique, was especially valuable for analyzing biological macromolecule sensitive of temperature. On the other hand, advance in CE detection is impressive. Various detectors, including fluorescence detection, electrochemical detector with carbon paste electrode and so on, are studied to widen CE applications through making it more sensitive while reducing its production cost. The trend that the design of CE system today more and more meets the requirements of biochemical analysis now is very clear. It is sure that CE would become one of the main tools used in life sciences before long because of its high performance, fast speed, safety and low cost.

Hyphenation of CE to MS and NMR is another one of the hottest topics in this symposium. Ernst Bayer, Germany, reported on hyphenation of CEC and CE to nano-scale NMR. Compared with hyphenation of CZE in open tubular columns to electrospray MS (ES-MS), the main advantage of this technique is that no interface is necessary for coupling because of the higher-flow rate of the mobile phase. By Coupling of NMR both to CZE and CEC, nanoliter-scale detection limit can be achieved. Shigeru Terabe, Japan, provided three techniques to resolve the problem of the on-line coupling between MEKC and MS when a significantly high concentration of an ionic surfactant was used: (1) the use of a high molecular mass surfactant, (2) partial filling technique and (3) atmospheric pressure ionization (APCI) interface. Both the reports were the representative work in this field.

About novel columns and buffers, 80 percent of the contributions concerned with this subject discussed about medium. Marja-Lissa Riekkola, Finland, gave an account on CE with wide-bore capillaries and high voltages (above 30kv) under non-aqueous media. The main advantage by using non-aqueous media in CE is that higher electric field strength and wider capillaries can be used without reaching the current or power limit of the instrument because of the low generation of electric current. Challenging problems as gel shrinkage and cracking in preparing monolithic sol-gel column now meet their resolutions. Abdul Malik, USA, described a sol-gel chemistry–based general approach to column technology for electromigration separations.

Of all the subjects presented in this symposium, the most remarkable one surely is various CE applications on all kinds of fields such as chiral separation, clinical, pharmaceutical, biochemical, environmental and food analysis. Over 100 contributions of this kind were received during the preparing period for the symposium. Cyclodextrins are still found to be the most commonly used chiral selectors in this edition, especially Charged cyclodextrins as HSCD, CM-CD, SBE-CD etc. Lin, Bingcheng, China, with his coordinate, B. Koppenhoefer, Germany, both reported their cooperation of chiral drug screening program by CE. Ma, Yifa, USA, reported on using CE as a tool for clinical, nutritional and cancer research. Kiyokatsu Jinno, Japan, gave an account on microcolumn liquid chromatography and CEC for toxicological drug analysis. Frank Hartmut, Germany, Fung, Yingsing, Hong Kong and Youzung Hsieh, Taiwan, China, reported on trace analysis by CE of environmental and food samples, respectively. Marriot, Philip, Australia, gave some interesting information about capillary gas chromatography. 12 papers concerned with using CE to analyze traditional Chinese Medicine also brought hot discussions.

During APCE’98, 8 companies from China and abroad attended the symposium exhibition. HP Ltd., Beckman Ltd. and Bio-Rad Lab. USA, showed their newest developments in CE systems and methods in the workshop held on 8th, October. Lumex Ltd, Russia, exhibited their CE production specially designed for university education. It was proved to be a good communication between CE manufacturers and customers.

169 abstracts from 18 countries and areas were submitted in this symposium and 38 lectures were presented. APCE'98 has been proved to be an inspiring and successful scientific communication. Next symposium APCE'00 will be held in Hong Kong University, Hong Kong, China. Organizers and participants are expecting a great success!

*Prof. Bingcheng Lin is at the Biochem Analysis and Separation Group, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Zhongshan Road 457, Dalian 116023, China