Study of a liquid plug-flow thermal cycling technique using a temperature gradient-based actuator

Easy-to-use thermal cycling for performing rapid and small-volume DNA amplification on a single chip has attracted great interest in the area of rapid field detection of biological agents. For this purpose, as a more practical alternative to conventional continuous flow thermal cycling, liquid plug-...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2014-10, Vol.14 (11), p.20235-20244
Main Authors: Fuchiwaki, Yusuke, Nagai, Hidenori
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actuators
Algorithms
Aluminum
Amplification
Automation
Continuous flow
Cooling
DNA amplification
Equipment Design
Equipment Failure Analysis
Feedback
Heat
Heating - instrumentation
Influenza
Liquids
Medical research
Microchannels
Microfluidic Analytical Techniques - instrumentation
microfluidics
Oscillometry - instrumentation
PCR
Plug flow
Polymerase Chain Reaction - instrumentation
Reagents
Sensors
Temperature gradient
Thermal cycling
Thermography - instrumentation
Transducers
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Summary:Easy-to-use thermal cycling for performing rapid and small-volume DNA amplification on a single chip has attracted great interest in the area of rapid field detection of biological agents. For this purpose, as a more practical alternative to conventional continuous flow thermal cycling, liquid plug-flow thermal cycling utilizes a thermal gradient generated in a serpentine rectangular flow microchannel as an actuator. The transit time and flow speed of the plug flow varied drastically in each temperature zone due to the difference in the tension at the interface between temperature gradients. According to thermal distribution analyses in microfluidics, the plug flow allowed for a slow heating process, but a fast cooling process. The thermal cycle of the microfluid was consistent with the recommended temperature gradient for PCR. Indeed, amplification efficiency of the plug flow was superior to continuous flow PCR, and provided an impressive improvement over previously-reported flow microchannel thermal cycling techniques.
ISSN:1424-8220
1424-8220
DOI:10.3390/s141120235