In recent years, low-cost nucleic acid solutions on microfluidic chips have been developed, which would become a more valuable platform and one of the most common tools in the biomedical field. Creative Biolabs is a leader in microfluidic chip development. With years of experience and advanced microfluidic platforms, our scientists are pleased to offer the best-qualified outcomes to meet our customers' specific requirements for the development of microfluidic chips.
Microfluidic Chip
Microfluidics chip is often defined as a technology for biomedical and chemical applications, called Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC), which employs a scale of micrometers channels to manipulate small amounts of fluids with the behavior, precise control, and manipulation. Materials used for microfluidic chips can be classified as inorganic materials (such as silica and glass) and organic materials, (such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polystyrene (PS), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), and paper). Microfluidic technologies change the way of biochemistry and biomedical research, make significant improvements in fields of chemical synthesis, drug screening, and organ/tissue modeling.
Microfluidic Chip for Nucleic Acids
Since no complicated instrument is required, microfluidic chip is powerful for nucleic acid detection and analysis in different fields, such as diagnosis of diseases, food safety examination, and environmental pollutant monitoring. The chips now can be fully developed and be integrated with nucleic acid extraction, amplification, and signal detection on a single chip, and further used for point-of-care (POC) identification with sample-to-answer capability. Microfluidic chip enables improved efficiency in analyzing nucleic acids to evaluate the existing state of a specific gene and detailed information such as single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), insertion, and deletion. Microfluidic technology holds great promise as it can perform typical laboratory operations using a fraction of the volume of reagents in significantly less time.
Fig. 1 Nucleic acid detection by microfluidic.1,3
Advantage of Microfluidic Chip
Microfluidic technology offers several significant benefits compared to other conventional analysis techniques, such as:
The reactor and channel at the microscale to manipulate fluids in microscale space
Multiple reactions simultaneously for high-throughput analysis
Formation of enclosed chambers for eliminating cross-contamination
Miniaturization and automation platforms with improved portability and high sensitivity
Reduced volumes of samples and reagents
Microfluidic Chip Development for Nucleic Acids Solution
Aiming to fabricate miniaturized systems and analyze at the microscale for nucleic acids solutions, Creative Biolabs can offer the best-fit customized microfluidic chip development with great potential on a small chip to allow for all analytical steps, such as sample separation, mixing, chemical reaction, separation, and detection. We can combine different nucleic acid technologies with microfluidic chips to perform diagnoses in an effective, automatic, high-throughput, and integrated format. Moreover, the optimization of microfluidic chips can also increase the reliability/repeatability of testing for specific requirements such as multiplexed analysis of nucleic acids. Due to unique features of microfluidic chips, it has the potential to significantly improve the development of analytical science in many ways and provide novel solutions to biomedical engineering challenges for diagnostics and therapeutics.
Creative Biolabs now offers the design and development of specific microfluidic chips for different nucleic acid technologies, including but not limited to:
Microfluidic technology has drawn significant attention to be applied to more biological fields in terms of its unique features of reduced sample or reagent consumption, integrated functions, and high portability. By combining the simple, rapid, and specific nucleic acids method with our microfluidic technology, Creative Biolabs offers the high-quality microfluidic chip development service to meet our customers' requirements. Please feel free to contact us for more detailed information.
Published Data
The findings discussed in the articles related to microfluidic-based nucleic acids study are presented.
1. A combined microfluidic apparatus for nucleic acid amplification testing (NAATs).
Fig 2. Chip using single-chamber for NA isolation, isothermal amplification, and real-time detection.2,3
Changchun Liu et al. describe a microfluidic system for sequence-specific nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT).2,3 The chip is designed with three parallel reaction chambers in which nucleic acids are amplified isothermally. At the entrance of each reaction chamber, there is a porous membrane composed of either cellulose or silica glass fiber. In the stage of sample loading, the nucleic acids are retained on the solid phase of the porous membrane as the sample lysate passes through it. Next, water fills the reaction chamber, and the temperature is raised to the amplification level, during which the lyophilized agents, enzymes, and dyes that were previously stored in the chamber are rehydrated and released. The nucleic acids that were captured on the membrane are then subjected to amplification. The feasibility and practicality of the microfluidic chip to implement the NAAT process have been well demonstrated in representative sample types and various applications.
References
Mumtaz, Rashid, et al. " Prospects of Microfluidic Technology in Nucleic Acid Detection Approaches." Biosensors 13.6 (2023): 584.
Mauk, Michael G., et al. "Integrated microfluidic nucleic acid isolation, isothermal amplification, and amplicon quantification." Microarrays 4.4 (2015): 474-489.
Distributed under Open Access license CC BY 4.0, without modification.
Q&As
Q: How do microfluidic chips improve nucleic acid analysis?
A: Microfluidic chips enhance nucleic acid analysis by enabling miniaturization, automation, and integration of multiple processing steps. This results in reduced sample and reagent consumption, faster processing times, and increased sensitivity and specificity in detecting nucleic acids.
Q: What are the main applications of microfluidic chips for nucleic acids?
A: Applications include DNA/RNA extraction, amplification (PCR), sequencing, quantification, and analysis of genetic mutations. These chips are widely used in genomics, diagnostics, personalized medicine, and drug development to study genetic information accurately and efficiently.
Q: What types of nucleic acids can be analyzed using microfluidic chips?
A: Microfluidic chips can analyze various nucleic acids, including genomic DNA, messenger RNA (mRNA), microRNA (miRNA), and circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA). This versatility makes them suitable for a wide range of genetic and genomic studies.
Q: How is data from microfluidic nucleic acid analysis collected and analyzed?
A: Data is collected through integrated detection methods such as fluorescence, electrochemical sensors, or optical detection. Advanced software processes and analyzes the data, providing detailed information on nucleic acid quantity, quality, and sequence variations.
Q: Can microfluidic chips be customized for specific research needs?
A: Yes, microfluidic chips can be customized to include specific channel designs, reaction conditions, and detection methods tailored to the unique requirements of each research project. This ensures that the chips provide highly relevant and precise data.
Resources
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Creative Biolabs has established a comprehensive microfluidics technique platform.
Fig. 1 Nucleic acid detection by microfluidic.1,3
Fig 2. Chip using single-chamber for NA isolation, isothermal amplification, and real-time detection.2,3
