Disposable DNA Amplification Chips with Integrated Low-Cost Heaters

Henk-Willem Veltkamp; Fernanda Akegawa Monteiro; Remco Sanders; Remco Wiegerink; Joost Lötters

doi:10.3390/mi11030238

Disposable DNA Amplification Chips with Integrated Low-Cost Heaters

Micromachines (Basel). 2020 Feb 25;11(3):238. doi: 10.3390/mi11030238.

Authors

Henk-Willem Veltkamp¹, Fernanda Akegawa Monteiro¹, Remco Sanders¹, Remco Wiegerink¹, Joost Lötters^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Integrated Devices and Systems, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands.
² Bronkhorst High-Tech BV, Nijverheidsstraat 1A, 7261 AK Ruurlo, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Fast point-of-use detection of, for example, early-stage zoonoses, e.g., Q-fever, bovine tuberculosis, or the Covid-19 coronavirus, is beneficial for both humans and animal husbandry as it can save lives and livestock. The latter prevents farmers from going bankrupt after a zoonoses outbreak. This paper describes the development of a fabrication process and the proof-of-principle of a disposable DNA amplification chip with an integrated heater. Based on the analysis of the milling process, metal adhesion studies, and COMSOL MultiPhysics heat transfer simulations, the first batch of chips has been fabricated and successful multiple displacement amplification reactions are performed inside these chips. This research is the first step towards the development of an early-stage zoonoses detection device. Tests with real zoonoses and DNA specific amplification reactions still need to be done.

Keywords: cyclic olefin copolymer; early-stage disease detection; integrated heaters; multiple displacement amplification; on-chip DNA amplification; polymer-based disposable microfluidic chips; zoonoses.