Microfluidics-Based System Can Speed DNA Analysis

Ltd., (Charlottesville, VA, USA) announced several developments supporting the advancement of its integrated microfluidics platform designed to dramatically decrease the time, complexity, and cost of conducting DNA testing.

The data were presented at the 21st International Symposium on Human Identification (ISHI), which was held October 11-14, 2010, in San Antonio (TX, USA). Scientists from ZyGEM's MicroLab unit together with the company's collaborators presented three sets of studies illustrating how the component elements of the prototype RapI.D. system act to speed the DNA analysis process.

RapI.D., which ZyGEM is developing in collaboration with Lockheed Martin), leverages MicroLab's advanced microfluidic research to accelerate the DNA identification process—essentially building a laboratory on a microfluidic chip that dramatically reduces the processing steps, time, and effort needed for analysis.

Three studies were presented at ISHI: the first study showed how the ZyGEM system conducts polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification up to 10 times more rapidly than conventional approaches, primarily by using infrared-mediated microchip PCR to reduce the time required for thermal cycling and holding. Infrared-mediated microchip PCR used far less reagent, required less sample, and was compatible with commercially available short tandem repeat (STR) amplification kits.

A second study presented at ISHI demonstrated that rapid microfluidic separations using the ZyGEM approach could be performed on two different detection systems using a plastic microchip, rather than the conventional glass microchip. The much cheaper plastic microchips worked as well as their glass counterparts, and could substantially decrease the overall cost of the analysis.

A third ISHI study assessed the overall performance of the prototype integrated microfluidics-based RapI.D. DNA analysis system ZyGEM is developing with Lockheed Martin. It showed that the multistep process for conventional forensic STR analysis requiring 8-10 hours was completed by the RapI.D. system in less than 60 minutes, extracting DNA from crude samples in as little as four minutes and completing the PCR amplification process in less than 40 minutes, using commercially available reagents.

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