Numerical and experimental study of a droplet-based PCR chip

Mohr, Stephan; Zhang, Yonghao; Macaskill, A; Day, Philip J.; Barber, Robert W.; Goddard, N J; Emerson, David R.; Fielden, Peter R.

doi:10.1007/s10404-007-0153-8

Cited by 77 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Heat transfer across the entire chip, including both the solid substrates and the liquid regions, was considered. Mohr et al [20] fabricated a two-temperature CFPCR polymer chip. The predicted temperature distribution along the centerline of the channel was shown as the heat conduction among the solid phase of the chip was included.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the previous studies on CFPCR devices, only a few researches analyzed the heat transfer across the entire device, including both the solid substrates and the liquid regions [19,20]. The heaters were placed around the working regions and contacted perfectly with the device to maintain three designed temperature regions as required for PCR processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analysis of Thermal Performance in a Bidirectional Thermocycler by Including Thermal Contact Characteristics

Chen

et al. 2014

Micromachines

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This paper illustrates an application of a technique for predicting the thermal characteristics of a bidirectional thermocycling device for polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The micromilling chamber is oscillated by a servo motor and contacted with different isothermal heating blocks to successfully amplify the DNA templates. Because a comprehensive database of contact resistance factors does not exist, it causes researchers to not take thermal contact resistance into consideration at all. We are motivated to accurately determine the thermal characteristics of the reaction chamber with thermal contact effects existing between the heater surface and the chamber surface. Numerical results show that the thermal contact effects between the heating blocks and the reaction chamber dominate the temperature variations and the ramping rates inside the PCR chamber. However, the influences of various temperatures of the ambient conditions on the sample temperature during three PCR steps can be negligible. The experimental temperature profiles are compared well with the numerical simulations by considering the thermal contact conductance coefficient which is empirical by the experimental fitting. To take thermal contact conductance coefficients into consideration in the thermal simulation is recommended to predict a reasonable temperature profile of the reaction chamber during various thermal cycling processes. Finally, the PCR experiments present that Hygromycin B DNA templates are amplified successfully. Furthermore, our group is the first group to OPEN ACCESS Micromachines 2014, 5 1446 introduce the thermal contact effect into theoretical study that has been applied to the design of a PCR device, and to perform the PCR process in a bidirectional thermocycler.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Thermal Performance in a Bidirectional Thermocycler by Including Thermal Contact Characteristics

Chen

et al. 2014

Micromachines

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“…Above a critical flow rate, the sample fails to achieve the required temperature and/or the requisite residence time for PCR. 7 In order to complete the PCR process without uncertainty, the sample flow rate was chosen to be lower than the critical value. Then, the thermal convection effect along the microchannel on the chip temperature is negligible and the temperature of the sample flow is almost equal to that near the solid wall of the chip.…”

Section: Theoretical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4 There have been some reports on performing flow-through PCR for two-temperature thermal cycling inside the microdevice. [5][6][7][8][9][10] Some of them combine the annealing and extension stages at the same temperature region, or the extension region is not created by direct heating but by lateral heat conduction from heaters for denaturation and annealing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

One-heater flow-through polymerase chain reaction device by heat pipes cooling

Chen

Liao

et al. 2015

Biomicrofluidics

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This study describes a novel microfluidic reactor capable of flow-through polymerase chain reactions (PCR). For one-heater PCR devices in previous studies, comprehensive simulations and experiments for the chip geometry and the heater arrangement were usually needed before the fabrication of the device. In order to improve the flexibility of the one-heater PCR device, two heat pipes with one fan are used to create the requisite temperature regions in our device. With the integration of one heater onto the chip, the high temperature required for the denaturation stage can be generated at the chip center. By arranging the heat pipes on the opposite sides of the chip, the low temperature needed for the annealing stage is easy to regulate. Numerical calculations and thermal measurements have shown that the temperature distribution in the five-temperature-region PCR chip would be suitable for DNA amplification. In order to ensure temperature uniformity at specific reaction regions, the Re of the sample flow is less than 1. When the microchannel width increases and then decreases gradually between the denaturation and annealing regions, the extension region located in the enlarged part of the channel can be observed numerically and experimentally. From the simulations, the residence time at the extension region with the enlarged channel is 4.25 times longer than that without an enlarged channel at a flow rate of 2 ll/min. The treated surfaces of the flow-through microchannel are characterized using the water contact angle, while the effects of the hydrophilicity of the treated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchannels on PCR efficiency are determined using gel electrophoresis. By increasing the hydrophilicity of the channel surface after immersing the PDMS substrates into Tween 20 (20%) or BSA (1 mg/ml) solutions, efficient amplifications of DNA segments were proved to occur in our chip device. To our knowledge, our group is the first to introduce heat pipes into the cooling module that has been designed for a PCR device. The unique architecture utilized in this flow-through PCR device is well applied to a low-cost PCR system. V C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

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“…Useful applications include polymerase chain reaction [Mohr et al, 2007], microfluidic logic gates [Cheow et al, 2007], droplet reactors and uniform emulsions [Stone et al, 2004]. However, a deeper understanding of droplet dynamics in microchannels is still necessary to fully exploit this potential.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiphase Lattice Boltzmann simulations of droplets in Microchannel networks

Zhang

Reese

2013

La Houille Blanche

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ABSTRACT. -In this work we study droplet flows in three different microchannel networks by using a multiphase lattice Boltzmann method. It is firstly shown that the lattice Boltzmann method is suitable for simulating droplet flows in complex microchannel geometries. The effect of velocity in the channels downstream of a branching intersection on the path a droplet would take through a microchannel network is investigated. We find that, for the investigated microchannel geometries, droplets that reached a channel intersection would travel through the downstream branch with the highest local velocity.Key-words: microdroplets, microfluidics, lattice Boltzmann method, microchannel networks, multiphase flow Simulations par Boltzmann sur réseau multiphasique de gouttelettes dans des réseaux de microcanauxRÉSUMÉ. -Dans ce travail, nous étudions les écoulements de gouttelettes dans trois réseaux différents de microcanaux en utilisant une méthode de Boltzmann sur réseau multiphasique. Il est tout d'abord montré que la méthode est adaptée pour simuler les écoulements de gouttelettes dans des microcanaux à géométries complexes. L'effet de la vitesse dans les canaux en aval d'une intersection sur le trajet pris par une gouttelette traversant un réseau de microcanaux est étudié. Nous constatons que, pour les géométries de microcanaux étudiés, les gouttelettes qui atteignent une intersection traverseraient la branche aval où la vitesse locale est la plus élevée.

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Numerical and experimental study of a droplet-based PCR chip

Cited by 77 publications

References 21 publications

Analysis of Thermal Performance in a Bidirectional Thermocycler by Including Thermal Contact Characteristics

Analysis of Thermal Performance in a Bidirectional Thermocycler by Including Thermal Contact Characteristics

One-heater flow-through polymerase chain reaction device by heat pipes cooling

Multiphase Lattice Boltzmann simulations of droplets in Microchannel networks

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