Patent ID: 6849396

Claim:
A method for analyzing metabolites in an initial sample, comprising (a) performing a plurality of capillary electrophoresis methods in series, each method comprising electrophoresing a sample containing multiple metabolites, whereby a plurality of resolved metabolites are obtained, and wherein (i) the sample electrophoresed contains only a subset of the plurality of resolved metabolites from the immediately preceding method in the series, except the first method of the series in which the sample is the initial sample, the metabolites in the initial sample potentially containing one or more target analytes; (ii) the capillary electrophoresis methods are selected from the group consisting of capillary isoelectric focusing electrophoresis, capillary zone electrophoresis and capillary gel electrophoresis; and (b) analyzing fractions containing resolved metabolites from the final electrophoretic method to detect the presence of the target analytes.