Advances in sample preparation in electromigration, chromatographic and mass spectrometric separation methods

The quality of sample preparation is a key factor in determining the succes s of analysis. While analysis of pharmaceutically important compounds in bi ological matrixes has driven forward the development of sample clean-up pro cedures in last 20 years, today's chemists face an additional challenge: sa mple preparation and analysis of complex biochemical samples for characteri zation of genotypic or phenotypic information contained in DNA and proteins . This review focuses on various sample pretreatment methods designed to me et the requirements for the analysis of biopolymers and small drugs in comp lex matrices. We discuss the advances in development of solid-phase extract ion (SPE) sorbents, on-line SPE, membrane-based sample preparation, and sam ple clean-up of biopolymers prior to their analysis by mass spectrometry. ( C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.