Cyclofructans (CFs) are a class of cyclic oligosaccharides with a crown ether skeleton. No enantioseparations have previously been reported using this class of chiral oligosaccharides in chromatography or electrophoresis. CFs and their sulfated derivatives were examined as chiral selectors using CE. The native CFs showed no enantioselectivity toward any tested compounds, while the sulfated CFs showed exceptional selectivity toward many cationic analytes, including primary, secondary, and tertiary amines and amino acids. Enantiomeric resolution factors as high as 15.4 were achieved within short analysis times (generally below 10 min). The effect of buffer type, buffer concentration, buffer pH, chiral selector concentration and organic modifier concentration was examined and optimized.

A CE method based on whole-cell molecular labeling via fluorescence in situ hybridization was developed for the detection of Candida albicans in whole blood. Removal of potentially interfering red blood cells (RBC) with a simple hypotonic/detergent lysis step enabled us to detect and quantitate contaminating C. albicans cells at concentrations that were orders of magnitude lower than background RBC counts ( approximately 7.0 x 10(9) RBC/mL). In the presence of the lysed blood matrix, yeast cells aggregated without the use of a blocking plug to stack the cells. Short (15 min) hybridizations yielded bright Candida-specific fluorescence in situ hybridization signals, enabling us to detect as few as a single injected cell. The peak area response of the stacked Candida cells showed a strong linear correlation with cell concentrations determined by plate counts, up to approximately 10(7) CFU/mL (or approximately 1 x 10(4) injected cells). This rapid and quantitative method for detecting Candida in blood may have advantageous applications in both human and veterinary diagnostics.

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