Manufacturing improvement and thermal property characterization of the frame structure of an Ultra-high Throughput Mutational Spectrometer

Constant denaturant capillary electrophoresis (CDCE) is a DNA separation technique that allows the detection of mutants at a fraction of 10̄⁻⁶. CDCE uses a region of constant temperature and constant denaturant concentration to separate fragments with distinct melting points. The concept of the Ultra-high Throughput Mutational Spectrometer (UTMS) will perform massively parallel CDCE on a 100 by 100 capillary array. A modular aluminum structure was designed for the instrument to provide a chamber to house the array and modulate the flow of coolant, providing temperature control. The first iteration of the structure experienced leakage problems, which this project rectified. The structure was also modified to interface with a gel loading mechanism below, and the LED fluorescent excitation array above. The current subunit will enable the testing the complete UTMS system. In addition, an immersion heater was installed in the water-tight structure to simulate the 200 to 275 W heat dissipation within the chamber, caused by Joule heating in the capillary array. Correlation of a theoretical model to experimental data characterized and verified the transient thermal response of the system.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Lin, Jiengju J. (Jiengju James)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ian W. Hunter.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32972

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/32972