Series DNA Amplification Using the Continuous-Flow Polymerase Chain Reaction Chip

Abstract

We proposed a continuous-flow polymerase chain reaction (PCR) chip that can be used for series DNA amplification. The continuous-flow PCR chip has several advantages such as fast thermal cycling, series of amplifications, cost-effective fabrication, portability, and fluorescence detection. The continuous-flow PCR chip is composed of two parts namely poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microchannel for sample injection and indium–tin-oxide (ITO) heater/glass chip for thermal cycling. The fabricated microchannel width and depth are 250 and 200 µm, respectively. Also, the total working length of the PDMS microchannel is 1340 mm which is equivalent for 20 cycles of amplification. A 2:2:3 microchannel length ratio for three different temperature zones namely denaturation, annealing, and extension was assigned, respectively. Upon the operation of the fabricated continuous-flow PCR chip, the amplification of plasmid DNA pKS-GFP with 720 base pairs and PG-noswsi with 300 base pairs were found successfully with a total reaction time of 15 min.