September 1998

Janis Research Receives R&D 100 Award for Development of a Special Cryostat for Novel Capillary Electrophoresis-Fluorescence Spectrometer

An Iowa State University technology, used to study how cancer-producing compounds damage cellular DNA, has been combined with a separation technique to form a powerful laboratory tool. Ames Laboratory researchers joined their low-temperature fluorescence line-narrowing spectroscopy (FLNS) technique with capillary electrophoresis (CE), a widely used analytical chemistry method. Although CE and FLNS are powerful techniques for the separation and characterization of molecules, each has certain limitations when used to study complex biological mixtures. Together, the limitations are eliminated, providing a powerful tool for chemical structural characterization. The two technologies were brought together by Janis Research Company’s development of a compact and fast-cooling capillary liquid helium cryostat.