Inexpensive, universal serial bus-powered and fully portable lab-on-a-chip-based capillary electrophoresis instrument.
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.
Kaigala
G V
GV
University of Alberta, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, ECERF, Edmonton, Canada.
Behnam
M
M
Bliss
C
C
Khorasani
M
M
Ho
S
S
McMullin
J N
JN
Elliott
D G
DG
Backhouse
C J
CJ
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
D004279:DNA, Viral