TECHNICAL FIELD The instant invention pertains to polymers. In par- ticular, the instant invention pertains to polymers, which are useful in capillary electrophoresis. Such polymers may be used as dynamic coatings for the inner surfaces of capillaries used for capillary electrophore- sis and are also useful as media contained within such capillaries. The instant invention further pertains to a method for making such polymers and to a capillary con- taining such polymeric coatings and/or media.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION During the last decade, capillary electrophoresis (CE) has developed into a powerful analytical method due to its flexibility and low volume requirement. CE pro- vides fast and efficient separations and offers the fol- lowing advantages over conventional slab gel electropho- resis: a) heat dissipation is very efficient in CE and Joule heating is minimized. This ensures negligible tem- perature gradients and thus reduces peak broadening.

Due to these effects, strong electric fields (typi- cally up to 400 V/cm) can be used, therefore reduc- ing run time and diffusion, which again leads to smaller peak widths. b) CE is compatible with a variety of detection meth- ods, such as absorption, laser induced fluorescence (LIF), mass spectrometry, chemiluminescence, voltam-

metry etc. In the case of DNA separation, CE also offers full compatibility to existing biochemistry. c) CE systems can inject directly from a variety of sample formats (e. g., Eppendorf tubes, microtitre plates, etc.) and even from single cells. d) the separation process can be fully automated.

Separation matrices and samples can be automatically injected, therefore avoiding the time consuming pro- cedure of gel casting and sample loading. e) multi-capillary devices offer the possibility to analyze samples in parallel.

Despite these positive features, room for improve- ment continues to exist in the area of CE. Improving the reproducibility of analysis times is of particular impor- tance. Analyte effective mobility (eff) in CE is a con- stant value depending on buffer composition and tempera- ture. On the other hand, apparent mobility is often less reproducible, as electroosmotic mobility (g..) can vary from run-to-run in a more a unpredictable way. Interac- tion of the analyte with the inner surface of the capil- lary contributes significantly to electroosmotic flow (EOF) variation. A number of CE applications, such as those involving the analysis of DNA and SDS-protein com- plexes, benefit from reduced EOF. For example, in the analysis of DNA, EOF suppression is required to prevent migration of the separation matrix out of the capillary and to avoid adsorption of protein contaminants and dyes to the capillary surface.

Several methods have been developed to control the surface properties of silica capillaries. Such methods include using a background electrolyte with suitable characteristics, dynamically coating the capillary sur- face with polymeric additives contained in the running buffer, and coating the capillary surface through cova- lent silanols derivatization. Although a number of dif- ferent dynamic coatings produced by adsorption of a poly- mer from an aqueous solution have been described, a com-

mon problem of these coatings is that the polymer can be easily removed from the capillary wall simply by washing with water. Therefore, unless otherwise stabilized, these coating are efficient in suppressing EOF only when a small amount of polymer is dissolved in the running buffer and can replace the polymer removed by the water from the surface.

The difficulties associated with performing chemical derivatization on silica micro-channels represent a sig- nificant obstacle to the development of innovative tech- niques such as micro-chip technology. Multiple capillary array technology, where as much as 96 capillaries must be handled at a same time, requires very simple and reliable coating procedures. Accordingly, there exists a strong scientific and industrial interest in coating procedures that do not require the use of organic solvents, high viscous solutions, and elevated temperatures.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The instant invention relates to the use of un- charged water-soluble polymers to suppress electroosmotic flow in capillary electrophoresis. The subject polymers adsorb onto the capillary surface, forming a highly hy- drophilic, dynamic coating which achieves EOF suppression without the addition of any polymer to the running buffer. The coatings of the invention possess an affin- ity for the capillary surface that may last for approxi- mately 20 hours of continuous use, under an electric field in a running buffer containing 8M urea, at a pH 8.5 at 45 °C. The subject polymers are also useful as sepa- ration media contained within the capillary column. The instant coatings and media are especially suitable for applications pertaining to the electrophoretic separation of various biomolecules, such as protein and DNA.

The polymers useful in the instant invention are co- polymers of various derivatives of acrylamide and methacrylamide monomers with various glycidyl group con- taining monomers e. g.,. dimethylacrylamide and allyl gly-

cidyl ether-epoxy poly (DMA)-, copolymers of various de- rivatives of acrylamide and methacrylamide with various allyl group containing carbohydrates and various glycidyl group containing monomers, such as allyl-D-pyranoside (typically P-D-glucopyranoside) or allyl ß-D-furanoside, allyl glycidyl ether-epoxy poly (AG-AA) and copolymers of four different monomers including various acryl and methacrylamide, various allyl group containing carbohy- drates, various glycidyl group containing monomer and various diol group containing monomer, such as acryla- mide, allyl ß-D-pyranoside (typically ß-D- galactopyranoside or N-allylgluconamide) or allyl P-D- furanoside, allyl glycydyl ether and allyoxy-1,2 pro- panediol-epoxy poly (AGal-AA-APD).

The instant invention also pertains to a capillary coated and/or filled with the above polymers and to a method for separating biomolecules using such a capil- lary.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 shows the effect of coating time on the stability of various polymer coatings. Fifty Fm capil- laries were pretreated as described in Example 3 and equilibrated for different amounts of time (from 10 to 600 min.) with 0.1% (w/v) solutions of the various poly- mers.

FIGURE 2 shows the degradation over time of capil- laries coated by dynamic adsorption of various polymers in TAPS-TRIS, EDTA, 8 M urea solution at pH 8.5 and 45 °C. The capillaries were coated by flushing the polymer solution within the capillary column for 10 minutes.

FIGURE 3 shows the degradation over time of capil- laries coated by dynamic adsorption of the same polymers shown in Figure 2 above in TAPS-Tris, EDTA, 8 M urea so- lution at pH 8.5 and 45 °C. The capillaries were coated by flushing the polymer solution within the capillary column for 10 minutes followed by 24 hours of contact be-

tween the capillary surface and the polymer.

FIGURE 4 reports EOF after washing the capillaries produced by adsorption of epoxy poly (DMA) from solution of different salts with a 1 mM solution of an anionic detergent, the FC129.

FIGURE 5 shows the degradation of epoxy-poly-DMA and hydrolyzed epoxy-poly-DMA coated capillaries in TAPS- Tris, EDTA, 8 M urea solution at pH 8.5 and 45 °C. The capillaries were coated by flushing the capillary column for 10 minutes with the polymer solution prepared with DI water and with 0.92M ammonium sulfate FIGURE 6 shows the electrophoretic separation of DNA ladders of various sizes in an epoxy-poly-DMA coated cap- illary using hydroxypropyl cellulose as a sieving matrix FIGURE 7 shows the electrophoretic separation of DNA ladders of various sizes in an epoxy-poly-DMA coated cap- illary using hydrolyzed epoxy-poly-DMA as a sieving ma- trix.

FIGURE 8 shows the electrophoretic separation of DNA ladders of various sizes in an un-coated capillary using hydrolyzed epoxy-poly-DMA as a sieving matrix.

FIGURE 9 compares the mobility of double stranded DNA fragments separated in poly (DMA) and hydrolyzed epoxy poly (DMA) in un-coated capillaries. The Mw of the two polymers is 3000 kDa.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The invention deals with the use of neutral polymers 1) to suppress electroosmotic flow and wall-analyte interactions in the separation of biomolecules by capillary and microchip electrophoresis and 2) as DNA sieving matrix for single and double stranded DNA molecules by capillary and microchip electrophoresis.

Concerning the use of the above mentioned polymers to suppress EOF, the polymers of the invention are co-

polymers of various composition bearing oxyrane groups pending from the backbone. The polymers are obtained by radical polymerization of monomers in water catalyzed by ammonium persulfate and TEMED.

The copolymers contain two different monomeric units, such as: dimethylacrylamide and allyl glycidyl ether. Alternatively the copolymers may contain three or more different monomeric units (e. g. acrylamide, an allyl monosaccharide (glucopyranoside or galactopyranoside or an allyl P-D-furanoside or N-allyl gluconamide) and allyl glycidyl ether; or four polymerized monomers (e. g. acrylamide, allyl monosaccharide, allyl glycidyl ether and allyoxy-1,2 propanediol). Their co-monomer composi- tion (see Table 1, below) has been optimized to increase adsorption properties.

Poly (DMA) can be produced with chains of different sizes by carrying out the polymerization process in the presence or in the absence of a chain transfer agent, such as isopropanol. Our studies on the adsorbing prop- erties of these polymers indicate that polymer length is a crucial parameter to achieve a capillary coating stable over time. Our data indicate that long chain poly (DMA) produced in the absence of a chain transfer agent possess better adsorbing properties than any other polymer. This might depend on the fact that water is a poorer solvent for poly (DMA) than for other more hydrophilic polymers, but also on the fact that the structure of this polymer is such that it form a higher number of hydrogen bridges with adsorptive sites on the silica.

However, although useful in many applications, hy- drophobic coatings are not recommended for proteins. In a previous work we demonstrated that most proteins pos- sess hydrophobic patches that interact with hydrophobic polymers and which can have has dramatic consequences on separation efficiency and reproducibility (Chiari et al., Anal. Chem., 68 (1996) 2731). The effects on peak pro- files caused by interaction are similar to those due the presence of unmasked silanols or, more generally, to the

presence of immobilized charges. In an attempt to conju- gate adsorbing properties with hydrophilicity, the pre- sent invention proposes to synthesize highly hydrophilic polymers consisting of an alkyl backbone bearing oxyrane and/or glucose units. Epoxy groups pendent from the polymer backbone dramatically improve adsorption leading to the possibility of using the dynamically coated capil- laries in the absence of any polymer added to the back- ground electrolyte (BGE). The reason why such a small amount of oxyrane substituent change polymer properties in such a dramatic way is probably the occurrence of a hydrogen bonding (secondary interaction) between wall si- lanols and polymer oxyrane groups. Oxyrane groups have limited hydrolytic stability, but even their hydrolysis- byproduct (diols) are prone to form hydrogen bonding with the wall silanol groups. As a result, the adsorptive properties of these polymers remain excellent. The oxyrane groups can also cause cross-linking of the con- tiguous chains bearing sugar hydroxyl groups, which can also increase the stability of the adsorptive coating; however, it can also cause insolubility problems during long term storage of the polymer.

In accordance with one embodiment of the instant in- vention, an amount of polymer ranging from 0.001 to 2% (w/v), typically 0.1% (w/v), is dissolved in water or in an aqueous medium of high ionic strength such as sodium phosphate, ammonium sulfate, sodium chloride. The polymer is then adsorbed to the silica surface from the solution described above, resulting in a viscosity increase of the liquid near the electric double layer without affecting bulk viscosity. The polymer may be coated onto the cap- illary (or similar microchannel such as a in a chip-like substrate) and the capillary then used for electrophore- sis procedures. The coating is sufficiently stable that it does not need to be refreshed prior to each electro- phoretic separtion. Alternatively, the polymer may also be included within the separation media (e. g. separation matrix). In the separation media, the polymer is in-

cluded at a concentration ranging from. 001 to 10% (w/v).

In some applications the polymer may be used alone as the sieving matrix. The polymer may be included in all of the separation media, or may be used only in the first one or two electrophoretic separation. The coating from these few separations will be retained for a hundred or more separations. The coating polymer may be included in the separation media after a hundered or more separa- tions, effectively recoating the capillary. After one or a few sequencing runs using a separation media including the polymer coating, the capillary is effectively re- coated and may be reused again for more than one hundred separations. The adsorptive capillary coating is per- formed in a time variable from 10 min to 24 hour from an aqueous solution, at room temperature, and reduces EOF below a value of 0.2 10-8 m2/Vs. EOF is measured in 20 mM Bicine-Tris buffer, pH 8.5.

Using aqueous medium with high ionic strength to prepare the coating polymer solution changes the surface properties of the coated capillary dramatically. This could be due to a different polymer conformation in the coating solution when salt is added, leading to a preva- lence of hydrophobic interactions with the wall with ex- posure of hydrophilic functionality towards the capillary channel.

Adsorption of the polymers of the invention to the capillary wall occurs within 10 minutes. The degree of adsorption was measured indirectly by observing the re- duction of EOF under a set of specified conditions. EOF was measured in 25 mM Bicine-Tris buffer, pH 8.5,25 °C, capillary 50 or 75 Wm ID, by a method that provides ac- celerated electroosmosis measurements in capillary elec- trophoresis recently reported by Williams and Vigh (Anal.

Chem. 68, 1996,1174-1180). Under the above reported conditions, the polymers of the invention are able to suppress EOF down to a value of 0.2 10-4 cm2/Vs.

The different coatings produced by the polymers of the invention can be used in various alkaline buffers

(such as TAPS-TRIS EDTA, 8M urea, pH 8.5) wi th and with- out the use of a sieving matrix (such as linear poly- acrylamide), at temperatures up to at least 45 °C, for at least 30 hours without addition of polymer to the running buffer. To the best of our knowledge, all presently known adsorbed coatings for capillary electrophoresis, unless otherwise stabilized, operate with addition of polymer to the background electrolyte (BGE) to avoid polymer displacement from the wall surface by water mole- cules with the exception of poly (ethylene) oxide (Iki and Yeung, Journal of Chromatography A, 731,1996,273- 282). However, the coating procedure based on this poly- mer requires coating the capillary before each run; its effectiveness at pH higher than 7 was not demonstrated and no data were provided on stability of the adsorbed coating. All the other methods, which are based on the adsorption of non-ionic polymers, require special tech- niques such as silanized columns, thermal treatments or organic solvents and evaporation (Gilges, Kleemiss and Shomburg, Anal. Chem. 66 (1995) 287; Busch, Kraak and Poppe,. Chromatogr. A., 695 (1995) 287; Ng, Lee, Li, J.

Chromatogr A., 659 (1994) 427.

The instant polymers may also be used as separation media and packed inside the coated or un-coated capillary column using commonly known packing techniques. In par- ticular, one of the monomer used to produce the various copolymers, the allyl glycidyl ether, contains masked hy- droxyl functions. Its presence in co-polymers that do not contain other hydroxyl groups strongly improves their hy- drophilic properties. By acid or base catalyzed hy- drolysis of the epoxy functionality, pending from the polymer backbone, hydroxyl groups are produced. Genera- tion of hydroxyl groups from epoxide groups is advanta- geous over the directed polymerization of monomers bear- ing hydroxyl functionality as the latter groups are known to have chain transfer activity in radical polymeriza- tion, resulting short polymer chain formation. It is well known that the molecular weight of a polymer plays a cre-

cial role in its sieving properties, particularly in DNA sequencing. Introducing epoxy groups onto a polymer chain not only increases the adsorptive and hydrophilic proper- ties of the polymer, but also introduces functional groups that can potentially generate hydroxyl functional- ity after the polymerization is completed (without inhib- iting polymer growth). Epoxy monomers have been se- lected, as an example amongst different functional groups able to generate hydrophilic groups by hydrolysis. Hy- drolyzed epoxy poly (DMA) with a Mw of 3 M kDa, for in- stance, can be used in CE as DNA sieving matrix for DNA in an un-coated capillaries. Its sieving capability dif- fers significantly from those of a poly (DMA) with the same molecular mass as it will be shown in one of the ex- amples.

Copolymers of dimethylacrylamide and allyl-glycidil ether (or the hydrolyzed diol of this compound) may be generated by incubating a capillary or other microchannel with a polymer solution containing 0.05 to 0.5% w/v of the polymer solution. The resulting coated capillary may be used for hundreds of sequencing runs without either recoating or including the polymer in the separation me- dia (e. g. separation matrix). The polymer has a unique affinity for silica surfaces such that the polymer does not need to be included in the separation matrix.

The copolymers of the present invention include co- polymers of dimethylacrylamide (DMA) and a second copoly- merized monomer, the copolymer being more hydrophillic than dimethylacrylamide. The dynamic coating may include a copolymer of dimethylacrylamide and at least a second copolymerized monomer, the second copolymerized monomer making the copolymer less hydrophobic than poly (dimethylacrylamide). It is believed that other polymers such as polyethyleneoxide, polyvinylpirolidone, N, N-alkylsubstituted acrylamides, may also be used as dy- namic coating in accordance with the present invention.

Various combinations of polymers may be used as coatings and separation media to optimize the separation

and EOF conditions for particular applications. Capil- laries coated with the instant polymers and/or packed with the instant polymers as separation media are suit- able for separation of charged molecules, especially large biomolecules such as protein and DNA.

The following examples are for illustration purposes only and should not be used in any way to limit the ap- pended claims.

EXAMPLES Example 1: Svnthesis of poly (DMA) Linear poly (DMA) of different relative molecular mass, Mw 230,000, and Mw 3,000,000 is synthesized using conventional techniques. Poly (DMA) of reduced chain length is synthesized using 2-propanol as a chain trans- fer agent to control the molecular mass of the product.

A solution of freshly distilled N, N-dimethyl acrylamide (1 g) is dissolved in 9.7 mL of water and degassed under vacuum for 30 min. Isopropanol (0.3 mL) is then added to the reaction vessel. Next, 100 UL of 10% (v/v) N, N, N', N'-tetramethylethylendiamine (TEMED) in water and 10 ZL of a 40% (w/v) ammonium persulfate in water is added. The mixture is allowed to react for 1 hour at 50 °C. To remove any unreacted monomer and contaminants, the reaction mixture is dialyzed against water using a 12000 molecular mass cut-off dialysis membrane from Sigma. The solution is lyophilized to give 0.8 g of a white solid. A similar procedure is adopted to produce long-chain poly (DMA) in the absence of isopropanol. The average molecular masses (Mw) of the different polymers are determined by GPC-LS.

The polymer samples were dissolved in a solution containing 0.1 M NaNO3 and 0.05% NaN3 at a concentration of 2 g/l. For analysis, 50 uL polymer samples were in- jected into Waters Alliance system (Milford, MA) to frac- tionate the polymer by SEC using Ultrahydrogel 2000 col- umn (Milford, MA) with the mobile phase containing 0.1 M NaNO3 and 0.05% NaN, at flow rate 0.5 mL/min. The polymer

zones were detected with on-line multi-angle laser light scattering (MALLS) detector Dawn (Wyatt Technology, Santa Barbara, CA) and refractive index (RI) detector Waters 2410 (Milford, MA). The signal from RI detector was used to determine the polymer concentration in each slice of chromatogram using the value of dndc being of 0.147 ml/mg as determined separately. The MALLS data were processed using ASTRA software (Wyatt Technology, Santa Barbara, CA).

Example 2: Svnthesis of polvmers bearina oxyrane groups.

All polymerization reactions are carried out in a two-necked, round-bottomed flask equipped with nitrogen inlet tube, addition funnel. The designated amount of monomers (Table I) are dissolved in distilled water and then, after purging with purified N2 gas, solutions of TEMED (0.14% v/v) and ammonium persulfate (0.05% w/v) are added to catalyze the reaction. The mixture is allowed to polymerize overnight at room temperature. Epoxy poly AG-AA is then precipitated by adding methanol to the so- lution whereas epoxy poly (DMA) is directly dialyzed against water. To remove any unreacted monomer and con- taminants, the polymers are re-dissolved in water and dialyzed against water using a 12000 molecular mass cut- off dialysis membrane from Sigma. The solutions are ly- ophilized to produce white solids.

Table 1 Monomer composition of polymerization solutions used for the different copolymers POLYMER AA DMA AG AGal APD AE mol/L mol/L mol/L Mmol/L mol/L mol/L Epoxy poly 1. 69------0. 42 0. 24 0.122 (AGal-AA-APD) Epoxy poly 1. 40 0. 63---0. 005 (AG-AA) Epoxy poly 0.0080.4

Wherein: AA= acrylamide AG= allyl P-D-glucopyranoside Agal=allyl P-D-galactopyranoside AE=allyl glycidyl ether DMA= dimethylacrylamide APD= allyoxy-1,2 propanediol Example 3: Coatina procedure Capillary pre-treatment: Fifty um I. D. capillaries are first pretreated with 0.1 M NaOH for a period of time ranging from 10 minutes to 1 hour, followed by 5-45 minutes of washing with de- ionized water.

Dynamic adsorption of linear polymer: A 0.1% (w/v) solu- tion of the polymers in DI water or in an appropriate salt solution, unless otherwise specified, is forced for 10 minutes to 2 hours through the capillary, at room tem- perature, under a nitrogen pressure of 3 atm. The solu- tion is allowed to remain in the capillary for 10 minutes to 12 hours (typically 10 min) and subsequently removed by washing the capillary with water under a nitrogen pressure of 3 atm.

Capillary reqeneration: The coating is regenerated by washing the capillary with 0.1 M NaOH solution for 10

minutes followed by the dynamic adsorption of the poly- mers as reported above.

Example 4: Coating kinetic The time required to generate a dynamic coating onto the capillary surface is investigated by treating the capillaries as reported in Example 3. A 0.1% (w/v) solu- tion of the different polymers in deionized water is al- lowed to remain in the capillary for an amount of time varying from 10 to 600 minutes. Afterwards, the capil- laries are emptied as reported in Example 3 and the EOF measured in 20 mM Bicine-tris buffer, pH 8.5 as reported above.

Figure 1 shows the dependency of EOF from the time of contact between the polymer and the surface. As clearly illustrated by the figure, with the exception of short chain poly (DMA), a significant reduction of EOF is achieved in only 10 min. A further period of contact does not lead to any significant suppression.

Example 5: Degradation kinetic of dynamically coated capillaries Two series of capillaries are coated as described in Example 3. The first series of capillaries are coated with polymers for 10 minutes. The second series of cap- illaries are coated for 24 hours. The capillaries are subjected to degradation under conditions similar to those currently used in DNA sequencing: 100 mM TAPS-TRIS, EDTA buffer, 8 M urea and 45 °C. The aim of this experi- ment is to investigate whether the stability of coatings produced by dynamic adsorption in 10 minutes is compara- ble to coatings produced by equilibrating the surface with the polymer solution for 24 hours. As shown in Fig- ures 2 and 3, the lifetime of epoxy poly (DMA) and long chain poly (DMA) is very similar and longer than that of polymers containing hydroxyl functions. Figures 2 and 3 also show that there are no differences in the stability

depending on contact time between polymer and surfaces, except for short chain poly (DMA) and epoxy poly (AG-AA).

Example 6: Dependence of surface properties on ionic strength of the coatina polymer solution The effect of various salts in the coating polymer solution on the properties of the coated capillary is in- vestigated by measuring the EOF after a wash of the cap- illary with a hydrophobic, anionic detergent, the N- Ethyl-N-[(heptadecafluoroocty)-sulfonyl][(heptadecafluorooct y)-sulfonyl] glycine (FC129) The EOF of the adsorbed-coated capillaries is measured before and after washing the capillary with a 1 mM solu- tion of the FC129, for 5 min by applying a pressure of 15 psi. Since the detergent is negatively charged, when it adsorbs to the surface, due to hydrophobic interaction, it will result EOF generation on the originally neutral coated wall surface. A 45 cm long, 50 pm ID capillary i-s dynamically coated with epoxy-poly (DMA) using the condi- tions described in Example 3 with the only difference that the polymer, during the adsorption step, was dis- solved in different salt solutions such as 0.5 M sodium chloride, 0.05 M sodium phosphate, 0.9 M ammonium sul- fate. As shown in Figure 4, the addition of different salts decreased the detergent adsorption, thus improved the hydrophilicity of the coating dramatically. This ex- ample suggests the possibility to tune the properties of any amphiphilic-adsorbed polymer from hydrophobic to more hydrophilic by plying on the polymer conformation in the coating solution.

Example 7: Stabilitv of adsorbed coatinas as a function of the composition of polymer adsorbing solution Two-two capillaries, coated as reported in example 3 with the epoxy poly (DMA) and hydrolyzed epoxy poly (DMA) polymers dissolved in water or in 0.92 M ammonium sulfate are subjected to degradation under conditions similar to those currently used in DNA sequencing: 100 mM TAPS-TRIS, EDTA buffer, 8 M urea and 45 °C. The aim of this experi--

ment is to investigate whether the stability of the coat- ings produced by dynamic adsorption from different ionic strength solutions is similar. As shown in Figure 5, the EOF of both epoxy poly (DMA) and hydrolyzed epoxy poly (DMA) adsorbed from ammonium sulfate solution is lower than that of the same polymer adsorbed from water.

Example 8: Electrophoretic separations of various DNA samples in dynamically coated capillaries A 45 cm long, 75 um capillary is dynamically coated with epoxy-poly (DMA) polymer, using the conditions de- scribed in Example 3. DNA ladder standards of various sizes are separated in Taps-Tris-EDTA 100 mM running buffer, at pH 8.5, using 1.5% (w/v) hydroxyethyl cellu- lose (from Hewlett Packard) as sieving matrix. The ap- plied voltage was-8 kV. The results shown in Figure 6 illustrate the feasibility of using the instant dynamic coated capillaries for electrophoresis of DNA samples in combination with other polymer used as DNA sieving ma- trix.

Example 9: Acidic hydrolysis of epoxy poly (DMA) Thirty mL of epoxy poly (DMA) polymer solution, syn- thesized as reported in Example 2, were added without further purification to 120 mL of 1.25 M sulfuric acid solution previously warmed at 60 °C. After addition the composition of the solution is 0.8 w/v polymer in 1M sul- furic acid. The reaction mixture is gently stirred for 6 hours while maintaining the temperature at 60°. At the end of the reaction the polymer is purified by dialysis as reported in Example 3.

Example 10: Electrophoretic separations of various DNA samples in using hydrolyzed epoxy polv (DMA) as the siev- ing matrix in an epoxy poly (DMA) adsorbed coated capil- lary A 45 cm long, 75 um ID capillary is dynamically coated with epoxy-poly (DMA) polymer, using the condi-

tions described in Example 3. DNA ladder standards of various sizes are separated in Taps-Tris-EDTA 100 mM run- ning buffer, at pH 8.5, using 2% (w/v) hydrolyzed epoxy polyDMA as sieving matrix. The applied voltage was-8 kV. The result, shown in Figure 7, illustrate the feasi- bility of using the hydrolyzed epoxy poly (DMA) as the DNA separation matrix for DNA electrophoresis.

Example 11: Electrophoretic separations of various DNA samples in using hydrolyzed epoxy poly (DMA) as the siev- ing matrix in an un-coated capillary DNA ladder standards of various sizes are sepa- rated in a 45 cm long, 75 um ID fused silica capillary, filled with Taps-TRIS-EDTA 100 mM running buffer, at pH 8.5, using 2% (w/v) hydrolyzed epoxy poly (DMA) as the sieving matrix. The applied voltage was-8 kV. The re- sults shown in Figure 8 illustrate the feasibility of us- ing the hydrolyzed epoxy poly (DMA) as the DNA separation matrix for DNA electrophoresis in an un-coated capillary.

This result shows the self-adsorbing properties of the instant polymer onto the capillary wall.

Example 12: Comparison of electrophoretic mobil- ity of double stranded DNA fragments in polv (DMA) and hv- drolyzed epoxy-poly (DMA) ranging from 100 to 1000 bp.

The mobility versus the size of double stranded DNA fragments, in size range of 100 to 1000 bp, is reported in Figure 9. The two curves refer to mobility data ob- tained in a 2% (w/v) poly (DMA) and hydrolyzed epoxy poly (DMA), both with Mw 3000 kDa, solution in 100 mM TAPS-TRIS, 2 mM EDTA buffer, pH 8.5. Separation condi- tions as in Example 8.

Example 13: Preparation of sieving gel containing dy- namic coated capillary arrays for DNA sequencing A capillary array, containing 16 individual (75pm ID, 64 cm long (44 cm effective length)) capillaries is dynamically coated with epoxy-poly-DMA using the MegaBACE

1000 DNA Sequencer from Molecular Dynamics. The arrays are first pretreated with 0.1 M NaOH for 15 minutes, fol- lowed by 2 high (1000 psi) and 2 low (400 psi) pressure washes with deionized water. A 0.1% (w/v) solution of the polymers, is forced through the array by using two high-pressure (1,000 psi) fills for 5-5 seconds. The polymer solution is allowed to remain in the arrays for 10 minutes and subsequently removed by washing the array with deionized water, using two high (1,000 psi) and two low (400 psi) pressure rinse. The dynamic coated array is then rinsed with the background electrolyte (TAPS- TRIS, EDTA, 8 M urea solution at pH 8.5) using consecu- tive pressure rinses. The array is then filled with 0.3 % linear polyacrylamide (LPA) gel matrix, using a 200 second high pressure rinse (1,000 psi), and allowed to equilibrate for 20 minutes. After the equilibration, a 5- minute pre-run is performed by applying lOkV on the ar- ray.

Example 14: DNA sequencing using dynamically coated capillaries A dynamic coated capillary array filled with background electrolyte (TAPS-Tris, EDTA, 8 M urea solution at pH 8.5) and linear polyacrylamide sieving gel matrix (0.3% w/v) is prepared as described in Example 13. A sample of DNA M13 in 70% formamide and 1 mM EDTA is injecte at 5 kV for 40 seconds and sequenced using a MegaBace-1000> DNA Sequencer. The separation voltage was 10 kV, the se- quencing temperature was 45 °C. Average read-lengths over 600 can be routinely achieved using dynamically coated capillary arrays.

Example 15: Stabilitv studv of dynamically coated cap- illaries under DNA sequencing-conditions To study the stability of the non-covalently bonded ar- rays in DNA sequencing, consecutive DNA sequencing runs are performed using the same conditions as described in Example 14. The average readlength of the 16 capillary

for each array is plotted in the function of the number of runs performed. After about 200 runs, the array is re-coated by repeating the array coating procedure de- scribed in example 13. The dynamic capillary coating is stable for over 200 consecutive sequencing runs (over 300 hours), without recoating of the capillary surface or without having polymer additive in the background elec- trolyte. After this time, a brief re-coating procedure can restore the original array performance. The perform- ance of coated capillaries realized readlengths longer than 700 bases, with average readlengths above 500 bases for over 200 sequencing runs.

Although various embodiments of the instant inven- tion are described in detail above, the instant invention is not limited to such specific examples. Various modi- fications will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art and fall within the spirit and scope of the following appended claims.