title: A flexible microfluidic processor for molecular biology: application to microarray sample preparation.
abstract: We describe a programmable microfluidic system with onboard pumps and valves that has the ability to process reaction volumes in the sub-microlitre to hundred microlitre range. The flexibility of the architecture is demonstrated with a commercial molecular biology protocol for mRNA amplification, implemented without significant modification. The performance of the microchip system is compared to conventional bench processing at each stage of the multistep protocol, and DNA microarrays are used to assess the quality and performance of bench- and microchip-amplified RNA. The results show that the microchip system reactions are similar to bench control reactions at each step, and that the microchip- and bench-derived amplified RNAs are virtually indistinguishable in differential microarray analyses.
authors.affiliation: IntegenX, 5720 Stoneridge Drive, Pleasanton, CA 94588, USA.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Wendell
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Farzaneh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rasti
authors.forename: Iuliu
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Blaga
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bogdan
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Eberhart
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kobrin
authors.forename: Dongho
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Bill
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: Ezra
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van Gelder
authors.forename: Stevan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jovanovich
authors.forename: Seth
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stern
mesh_terms: D046228:Microarray Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D021141:Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger