title: A nanoliter self-priming compartmentalization chip for point-of-care digital PCR analysis.
abstract: A nanoliter self-priming compartmentalization (SPC) microfluidic chip suited for the digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) analysis in point-of-care testing (POCT) has been developed. This dPCR chip is fabricated of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). After the dPCR chip is evacuated, there will be a negative pressure environment in the chip because of the gas solubility of PDMS. The negative pressure environment can provide a self-priming power so that the sample solutions can be sucked into each reaction chamber sequentially. The whole sampling process requires no external power and is valve-free. Channels that contain water are designed around each sample panel to prevent the solvent (water) from evaporating during dPCR process. A glass coverslip is also used as a waterproof layer, which is more convenient and more efficient than other waterproof methods seen in literature. This dPCR chip allows three samples to be amplified at the same time. Each sample is distributed into 1040 reaction chambers, and each chamber is only 2.08 nL. Human β-actin DNA solutions of known concentrations are used as the templates for the dPCR analyses to verify the sensitivity and accuracy of the method. Template DNA solutions diluted to concentrations of 300, 100 and 10 copies/μL are tested and shown that this simple, portable and self-priming dPCR chip can be used at any clinic as a real POCT technique.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Analytical Instrumentation, Institute of Cyber-Systems and Control, State Key Laboratory of Industrial Control Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Yibo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Qiangyuan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Qingchang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Bingwen
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Bofan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Yanan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Maokai
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Congcong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mu
authors.forename: Qinhan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D008832:Microchemistry / Q000295:instrumentation; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000295:instrumentation; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004247:DNA