1. DNA transport by a micromachined Brownian ratchet device
- Author
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Bader, Joel S., Hammond, Richard W., Henck, Steven A., Deem, Michael W., McDermott, Gregory A., Bustillo, James M., Simpson, John W., Mulhern, Gregory T., and Rothberg, Jonathan M.
- Subjects
Physics - Biological Physics ,Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter ,Quantitative Biology - Abstract
We have micromachined a silicon-chip device that transports DNA with a Brownian ratchet that rectifies the Brownian motion of microscopic particles. Transport properties for a DNA 50mer agree with theoretical predictions, and the DNA diffusion constant agrees with previous experiments. This type of micromachine could provide a generic pump or separation component for DNA or other charged species as part of a microscale lab-on-a-chip. A device with reduced feature size could produce a size-based separation of DNA molecules, with applications including the detection of single nucleotide polymorphisms., Comment: Latex: 8 pages, 4 figures
- Published
- 1999
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