DNA analysis involves not only the collection of material from living people, but in some other cases. For example, at the crime scene. And DNA typically requires that the procedure was carried out sekvenirovaniya, including separation — separation of nucleotide sites and purificatio — cleaning. Experts from the University of Twente managed to create a microchip that can speed up these processes. Writes about this edition of ScienceDaily, citing journal of Microsystems and Nano Engineering. Their device will help to significantly improve the quality of forensic medical examination and medical care.
The device consists of a microchip on glass base. The edges of the microchip has a large number of channels for sampling the DNA, and in the center is a reservoir for the collected DNA and the electrodes. With the help of simple reactions and the effects of electric fields of different amplitudes the movement of electrical current goes in two directions, perpendicular to each other, which greatly accelerates the analysis process. The “normal” approach for these goals using all the same electric field, but the DNA fragments are placed in a special gel. Larger DNA fragments move more slowly than small, which occurs due to the process of separation of some fragments from others. In the gel, the current flows only in one direction, which slows down the reaction rate.
During a series of experiments, the new device took only two minutes to successfully distinguish DNA fragments consisting of 500 and 10 000 base pairs of nucleotides, which is several times faster than the “normal” method. In addition, the chip is extremely cheap to manufacture and does not require special skills when using.
Represented a microchip that can separate DNA and purify the fragments
Vladimir Kuznetsov