Study of disposable microdevices for DNA electrophoresis

A study was undertaken to determine if a microfluidic chip, made of economical plastic materials, is feasible. The chip was designed to perform gel electrophoresis, specifically of DNA fragments for either sequencing or identification purposes. With a disposable version of such a chip, constraints on the gel type are relaxed and lifetime issues become nonexistent. Such a chip was created using polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS) as the plastic material, with a cast molding process. The chip was subsequently sealed against a piece of PDMS, mounted on a glass slide for structural support. Fluidic and electrical interconnects were added to the chip. A polyacrylarnide solution was injected into the chip for use in DNA separations. The chip was then placed into an apparatus designed for laser induced fluorescence(LIF) detection. Several different samples were run on the chip, including polystyrene beads, organic dye molecules, and single tandem repeat (STR) allelic ladders. The chip demonstrated its electrophoretic efficiency, evincing a low, almost negligible amount of electroosmotic flow. The separation of the dye and DNA was accomplished with good fidelity, allowing for identification of the various substitutents of the loaded sample.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Timp, Winston (Winston G.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Alan J. Grodzinsky.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

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/1721.1/33175

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33175