An all-in-one microfluidic device for parallel DNA extraction and gene analysis

We have developed a microfluidic device capable of fully integrated sample preparation and gene analysis from crude biosamples such as whole blood. Our platform takes the advantage of the silica superparamagnetic particle based solid phase extraction to develop an all-in-one scheme that performs cell lysis, DNA binding, washing, elution and the PCR in the same reaction chamber. The device also employs a unique reagent loading scheme, allowing efficient preparation of multiple reactions via a single injection channel. In addition, PCR is performed in a droplet-in-oil manner, eliminating the need for chamber sealing. The combination of these design features greatly reduces the complexity in implementing fully integrated lab-on-a-chip systems for genetic detection, facilitating parallel analysis of multiple samples or genes on a single microchip. The capability of the device is demonstrated by performing DNA isolation from the human whole blood sample and analyzing the Rsf-1 gene using the TaqMan probe based gene specific PCR assays.