CONTINUOUS BIOCHEMICAL REACTOR FOR ANALYSIS OF SUB-PICOMOLE QUANTITIES OF COMPLEX ORGANIC MOLECULES AND METHOD OF OPERATION THEREOF

摘要

A novel reactor for reacting and subsequently analyzing sub-picomole quantities of a sample organic molecule. The reactor includes a continuous capillary connected between two valves that control fluid flow in the capillary. One part of the capillary forms a reaction chamber where the sample may be immobilized for subsequent reaction with reagents supplied through the valves. Another part of the capillary passes through or terminates in the detector portion of an analyzer such as an electrophoresis apparatus, liquid chromatographic apparatus or mass spectrometer. The apparatus may form a peptide or protein sequencer for carrying out the Edman degradation reaction and analyzing the reaction product produced by the reaction. The protein or peptide sequencer includes a reaction chamber for carrying out coupling and cleavage on a peptide or protein to produced derivatized amino acid residue, a conversion chamber for carrying out conversion and producing a converted amino acid residue and an analyzer for identifying the converted amino acid residue. The reaction chamber may be contained within one arm of a capillary and the conversion chamber is located in another arm of the capillary. An electrophoresis length of capillary is directly capillary coupled to the conversion chamber to allow electrophoresis separation of the converted amino acid residue as it leaves the conversion chamber. Identification of the converted amino acid residue takes place at one end of the electrophoresis length of the capillary. In a method of the invention, the Edman degradation reaction is carried out in a capillary. Immobilization, cleavage and coupling of the peptide/protein takes place in a reaction chamber portion of the capillary to produce derivatized amino acid residue, and conversion takes place in a conversion chamber portion of the capillary to produce a converted amino acid residue. Electrophoresis separation of the converted amino acid residue then preferentially takes place in an electrophoretic length of the same capillary, including by applying an electric field across the conversion chamber, followed by identification of the converted amino acid residue.