Integrated Microfluidic Systems for DNA Analysis

MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems) technologies and micromachining techniques have been increasingly employed in the integration of microfluidic devices designed to automate the generation and analysis of biomedical samples. Miniaturized devices for electrophoresis separation and sensing mechanisms have been successfully developed and provide such benefits as lower sample consumption, higher resolution, and improved detection speeds. However, the sample pretreatment process still requires significant time and effort. Therefore, an emerging requirement exists to develop integrated microfluidic systems for sample pretreatment operations such as cell culture monitoring, cell lysis, DNA extraction, DNA/reagent mixing and DNA amplification.