Throughout the more than 20 years that have followed the beginnings of capillary electrophoresis (CE), its application to the analysis of proteins and peptides has continued to be reliable, versatile, and productive. Over time, CE has matured to become a superb complement to HLPC, and in many cases has also evolved as an automated and quantitative replacement for conventional slab gel electrophoresis methods such as SDS-PAGE and isoelectric focusing. Within Capillary Electrophoresis of Proteins and Peptides, we have assembled contributions from researchers who are applying state-of-the-art CE for protein and peptide analysis, including topics that we believe are of great potential both in the present and for the future. In comparison to traditional separation methods, CE represents a miniaturized analysis technique (especially in its microchip-based format) that is highly dependent upon the basic fundamentals of effective sample recovery and high sensitivity detection. With these issues in mind, Chapters 1–4 describe recently developed approaches for both capillary coatings and analyte detection via laser-induced fluorescence. Since the discipline of biotechnology has established itself as a primary platform for the application of CE to the analysis of proteins and peptides, Chapters 5–7 demonstrate a variety of examples of the specific techniques that have been applied for the development of biopharmaceuticals and their commercialization. The methods covered here include also the analysis of oligosaccharides from glycoproteins.
