The main research areas in our group are:

Implementation in Lab-on-a-Chip of Simultaneous Sample Preparation and Analysis of Biological Fluids

Within this project implementation of sample work up and analysis will be carried out on a chip in cooperation with Prof. Stanislas Krawczyk from Ecole Centrale de Lyon, Ecully, France and faculty of biotechnology, and Prof. habil. Dr. Jan Potempa from Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland. The project is financed by ECO-NET (France).

Epigenetic and molecular research of plants photo and temoinduction for development of theory of flowering

The project is carried out in cooperation with Lithuanian Institute of Horticulture. The aim of the project is evaluation of DNA methylation level depending on plants photo and thermoinduction by means of CE.

Evaluation of biologically active compounds in medicinal plants

The project is carried out with Kaunas Botanical garden of VMU within the plant gene pool project.
The aim of the project is evaluation of biologically active compounds in medicinal plants by means of different analytical methods.

• The compounds of the main interest:
  
  
  • flavonoid type compounds
• essential oils
• antioxidants
  
  
• Search for and optimization of suitable extraction methods for various biologically active compounds:
  
  
  • supercritical fluid extraction
  • extraction of essential oils by water steam distillation
  • liquid extraction of raw material
    
    
• Complex analysis of biologically active compounds:
  
  
  • analysis by means of gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry
  • application of capillary electrophoresis
  • HPLC separation coupled to reaction detector for evaluation of antioxidants
  • evaluation of total amount of phenolic compounds by spectrophotometry
Investigation of enantiorecognition and chiral chromatography


• synthesis and characterization of cellulose triacetate adsorbents (microcrystaline, different degree of acetylation, different morphology and coated on silica gel matrices) for enantiorecognition
  
• synthesis and application of chiral phases with metal chelating chiral ligands for chromatography of alpha-amino acids
  
• cyclodextrin-based stationary phases
  
• chirally imprinted adsorbents, continuous beds and gels
  
• microformat/nanoformat (capillary-scale) chromatographic enantioseparations: synthesis and application of metal chelating stationary phases and protein-based stationary phases
  


Synthesis of polymeric continuous beds and gels for capillary chromatography/electrochromatography. Investigation of molecular interaction and separation mechanisms in different chromatographic modes


• normal-phase capillary chromatography/electrochromatography
  
• reversed-phase capillary chromatography/electrochromatography (Cooperation project with AstraZeneca, Mölndal, Sweden)
  
• investigation of influence of morphological structure of the beds using high resolution optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy
  
• macrocyclic antibiotics-based chiral continuous beds for capillary electrochromatography
  



PARTICULATE vs NONPARTICULATE PHASES


Application of polyrotaxanes in chromatography
Cooperation project with Prof. U. Pyell's research group at Marburg University (Germany) sponsored by Volkswagen Foundation (finished in July, 2003)
Report of the project

• synthesis and characterization of polyrotaxane based continuous beds and gels for chromatography
  
• application of charged cyclic molecules forming rotaxanes for generation of electroosmotic flow in the polyrotaxane-based bed
  
• inducing specific chromatographic properties (hydrophobic, affinic etc.) via rotaxanes
  
• investigation of rotaxanes as potential enantio-recognition selectors
  


Restricted-access media for microformat analyses
Cooperation project with Prof. D. Westerlund's research group at Uppsala University (Sweden)


Normal phase capillary electrochromatography of biologically active compounds