Phospholipids exist in abundance in the cell membranes of animals and plants. It is known that chemical and physical properties of cell membranes are largely dependent on the phospholipid composition. Because of their special role in cell structure and function, it is of great importance to establish efficient methods for separation and detection of phospholipids.
        Currently, we are developing CE methods for the analysis of phospholipids and their molecular species. MECC was employed to improve the resolution and related separation mechanism was also studied. Detection limits as low as subnanomolar were obtained by using the ultrasensitive sheath flow LIF detector which was developed in this group. In addition, this method provided high separation speed. Generally, phospholipids were separated within a few minutes. Future work will be focused on extending the application of our method in the field of lipid biochemistry.
        We have several publications that describe our research in lipid analysis.

• "Methyl-b-cyclodextrin modified micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography with laser-induced fluorescence for separation and detection of phospholipids" L. Zhang, S. Krylov, S. Hu, N.J. Dovichi, Journal of Chromatography 895, 129-134 (2000).
• "Characterization of the interaction between phospholipids and proteins by capillary electrophoresis with laser induced fluorescence detection" S. Hu, L. Zhang, and N.J. Dovichi Journal of Chromatography A 924, 369-375 (2001).