title: Exploiting the benefits of miniaturization for the enhancement of DNA microarrays.
abstract: The present study demonstrates that the best way to enhance DNA microarray assays, both in terms of analysis speed and in final spot intensity, is to dissolve the available molar amount of sample in the smallest possible buffer volume and to subsequently convect this solution continuously across the surface of the array. The presently proposed shear-driven flow system is pre-eminently suited for this task, as it allows to induce strongly enhanced lateral transport rates, independently of the degree of miniaturization of the hybridization chamber. This transport enhancement method, however, only increases the hybridization rate and not the final spot intensity, as neither can any of the other transport enhancement methods already proposed in literature. A series of experiments with synthetic single-stranded (ssDNA) samples and an accompanying mass balance analysis are presented to demonstrate these points.
authors.affiliation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Department of Chemical Engineering, Brussels, Belgium. johan.vanderhoeven@vub.ac.be
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vanderhoeven
authors.forename: Kris
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pappaert
authors.forename: Binita
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dutta
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vanhummelen
authors.forename: Gino V
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Baron
authors.forename: Gert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Desmet
mesh_terms: D004277:DNA, Single-Stranded / Q000032:analysis*; D007700:Kinetics; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation; D008904:Miniaturization; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012212:Rheology
chemical_list: D004277:DNA, Single-Stranded