B ecause DNA is the blueprint for life in all its forms, it is no wonder that nucleic acids are of such interest to scientists. The Human Genome Project, completed in 2003, produced a wealth of information, including the number and average size of human genes, the fraction of the genome that codes for proteins, and the degree of sequence similarity, both among humans and compared with other organisms (1, 2). More importantly, deciphering the human genome should allow researchers to unravel the complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors involved in many diseases, and this should facilitate the development of therapeutic agents (1).The abundance of genomic information has been made possible in large part by improved analytical methods for nucleic acids. If all of the sequencing for the Human Genome Project had been performed with the slab gel technology that was available when the project began, the raw data would have been obtained at a rate of ~600 bases/h (3). The electrophoretic separations for just onefold coverage of the human genome would have taken millions of instrument-hours, in addition to the time required for sample preparation and data analysis. Development of capillary array electrophoresis (CAE), in which multiple samples are electrophoretically analyzed in parallel in a bundle of ~100-µm-diam capillaries, was a major breakthrough in DNA analysis (4 -7 ). High-throughput instruments with parallel capillaries for electro-