Inflight Polymerase Chain Reaction of samples with drones

Hassan Ali Abid; Tristan Minifie; Jian Wern Ong; Eric Shen Lin; Zhixiong Song; Oi Wah Liew; Tuck Wah Ng

doi:10.1016/j.ab.2020.114098

Inflight Polymerase Chain Reaction of samples with drones

Anal Biochem. 2021 Mar 1:616:114098. doi: 10.1016/j.ab.2020.114098. Epub 2020 Dec 31.

Authors

Hassan Ali Abid¹, Tristan Minifie¹, Jian Wern Ong¹, Eric Shen Lin¹, Zhixiong Song¹, Oi Wah Liew², Tuck Wah Ng³

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory for Optics and Applied Mechanics, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia.
² Cardiovascular Research Institute, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, National University Health System, Centre for Translational Medicine, 14 Medical Drive, 117599, Singapore.
³ Laboratory for Optics and Applied Mechanics, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia. Electronic address: engngtw@gmail.com.

PMID: 33388295
DOI: 10.1016/j.ab.2020.114098

Abstract

A system devised to conduct Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) in-flight on drones that uses the spatial displacement of capillary tubes on thermal blocks kept at 94 °C, 58 °C and 72 °C corresponding to cycling temperatures for denaturation, annealing and extension is demonstrated here. The use of acetal as the thermal block material reduced heat loss and the input power (within 18.5 W) needed to maintain the required temperatures. Tests showed that concentrations of samples down to 1.16 × 10⁶ DNA copies/μL could be significantly and consistently detected above the background emission of the fluorescence signal intensity.

Keywords: Drone; PCR; Quadcopter; Transport; UAV.

MeSH terms

Air Travel*
Aircraft / instrumentation*
DNA / analysis
Humans
Polymerase Chain Reaction / methods*
Specimen Handling / methods*
Temperature
Time Factors

Substances

DNA