Welcome to Oppenheimer Enterprises, LLC; a biotech company based in Kinnelon, New Jersey. Feasibility has been established for a rapid and high resolution analytical electrokinetic technique for the separation of proteins and are we preparing to embark on the next phase; establishing complementary semi-preparative protocols. We will update you as we progress.

An example of the current analytical protocol, a 2 minute separation of a protein mixture consisting of 7 components, is depicted in the attached photograph.  The mobility of chicken egg lysozyme, the protein with the fastest mobility in this experiment, exceeds 1 cm/minute.

Electrophoresis is one of four classical electrokinetic phenomena that control the position of particles in an electric field. Electromolecular Propulsion or EMP, a relatively new electrokinetic phenomenon, also controls the position of particles in an electric field. However, it differs from electrophoresis in that it can position uncharged (e.g. aromatic hydrocarbons) in an electric field (electrophoresis can only position charged particles), it does not contain electrolyte to control conductivity (electrophoresis requires electrolyte/buffer to control current), and generally consists of a semiconductive media to control Joule heating (electrophoresis is essentially aqueous). These differences result in EMP's much faster separations (up to 100X). Because of EMP's speed, diffusion is minimized and better resolution of separated components is obtained. EMP was described in the Journal for the Proceedings of the National Academy Society (vol.79 no.2, 1982) and patents (U.S. 3,984,298) in 1976 and (U.S. 4,146,454) in 1979. International patents followed.

We currently employ a hybrid technology of EMP and electrophoresis, electrochromatography (EC), for our work with proteinaceous material. Electrochromatography is a variant of electrophoresis and Electromolecular Propulsion, retaining properties of both. Both processes control position of molecules in an electric field. EC uses the benign environment of electrophoresis for separation and EMP's medium modification to minimize Joule heating described in EMP. The resulting process gives rise to rapid (less than 3 minute) separations.