title: Inexpensive, universal serial bus-powered and fully portable lab-on-a-chip-based capillary electrophoresis instrument.
abstract: Capillary electrophoresis is a cornerstone of lab-on-a-chip (LOC) implementations for medical diagnostics. However, the infrastructure needed to operate electrophoretic LOC implementations tends to be large and expensive, hindering the development of portable or low-cost systems. A custom-designed and highly integrated microelectronic chip for high-voltage generation switching and interfacing is recently developed. Here, the authors integrate the microelectronic chip with a microfluidic chip, a solid-state laser, filter, lens and several dollars worth of electronic components to form an inexpensive and portable platform, which is the size of a mobile telephone. This compact system has such reduced power requirements that the complete platform can be operated using a universal serial bus link to a computer. It is believed that this system represents a significant advancement in practical LOC implementations for point-of-care medical diagnostics.
authors.affiliation: University of Alberta, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, ECERF, Edmonton, Canada.
authors.forename: G V
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Kaigala
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Behnam
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bliss
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Khorasani
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: J N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: McMullin
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Elliott
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Backhouse
mesh_terms: D001739:BK Virus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D046209:Electrophoresis, Microchip / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral