Pre-storage of gelified reagents in a lab-on-a-foil system for rapid nucleic acid analysis

Lab Chip. 2013 Apr 21;13(8):1509-14. doi: 10.1039/c2lc41386h.

Abstract

Reagent pre-storage in a microfluidic chip can enhance operator convenience, simplify the system design, reduce the cost of storage and shipment, and avoid the risk of cross-contamination. Although dry reagents have long been used in lateral flow immunoassays, they have rarely been used for nucleic acid-based point-of-care (POC) assays due to the lack of reliable techniques to dehydrate and store fragile molecules involved in the reaction. In this study, we describe a simple and efficient method for prolonged on-chip storage of PCR reagents. The method is based on gelification of all reagents required for PCR as a ready-to-use product. The approach was successfully implemented in a lab-on-a-foil system, and the gelification process was automated for mass production. Integration of reagents on-chip by gelification greatly facilitated the development of easy-to-use lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices for fast and cost-effective POC analysis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Campylobacter jejuni / genetics
  • DNA, Bacterial / analysis*
  • Lab-On-A-Chip Devices*
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / instrumentation
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / methods*
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction

Substances

  • DNA, Bacterial