title: Tilted brownian ratchet for DNA analysis.
abstract: In this paper, we report a factor of 3 improvement in the resolution and a factor of 10 improvement in the speed of fractionation of approximately 100-kb DNA molecules in Brownian ratchet arrays. In our device, the electrophoretic flow is tilted at a small angle relative to the array axis. Tilting accelerates the fractionation speed because a higher fraction of the diffusing molecules is "ratcheted" at each step in the array. Molecules of lengths 48.5 and 164 kb can be separated in approximately 70 min with a resolution of approximately 3.8, using a 12-mm-long array. The Brownian ratchet arrays are not limited to DNA separation, but can, in principle, be used for any particle in this size range.
authors.affiliation: Center for Photonics and Optoelectronic Materials (POEM), Departments of Electrical Engineering, Molecular Biology, and Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Lotien Richard
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Edward C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Austin
authors.forename: James C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Sturm
mesh_terms: D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002627:Chemistry, Physical; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D004058:Diffusion; D004586:Electrophoresis / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D005453:Fluorescence; D010316:Particle Size
chemical_list: D004247:DNA