Plastic microfluidic separation and detection platforms

1. A plastic electrophoresis chip for separation and detection of DNA fragments comprising:

a substrate having top and bottom surfaces, further comprising an anode portion, a cathode portion, and a center portion between the anode and cathode portions, and

a cover layer having top and bottom surfaces such that the top surface of said substrate layer is bonded with the bottom surface of said cover layer to form a plurality of non-intersecting microfluidic channels and a detection window, each nonintersecting microfluidic channel having an equivalent length of between 2-50 cm and a separation and detection region; and the length, widths and depths of each of the plurality of microfluidic channels is adjusted so that the resistances in each of the plurality of microfluidic channels is substantially equivalent and configured to detect DNA; and wherein,

each non-intersecting microfluidic channel is in fluid communication with a first via located at said anode and a second via located at said cathode, said detection window comprised of plastic selected from the group consisting of polyethylene, a poly(carbonate), an unsaturated, partially unsaturated or saturated cyclic olefin polymer (COP), an unsaturated, partially unsaturated, or saturated cyclic olefin copolymer (COC), or a norbornene thermopolymer, and said detection window has a thickness of less than 2 mm, and overlaps in the detection region of each of said plurality of microfluidic channels.

2. The chip of claim 1 wherein the detection window plastic has a thickness of less than about 300 μm.

3. The chip of claim 1 wherein the detection window plastic has a thickness of less than about 500 μm.

4. The chip of claim 1 wherein the detection window plastic has a thickness of one millimeter or less.

5. The chip of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of microfluidic channels further comprises an injection channel.

6. The chip of claim 1 wherein the thin plastic is selected on the basis that it essentially does not fluoresce light having a wavelength between 500 and 800 nm when excited at a wavelength of about 488 nm.

7. The chip of claim 1 , wherein a plurality of nucleic acid species in a nucleic acid sample generated for fragment sizing applications can be detected with a starting with a single copy of a nucleic acid template for PCR amplification.

8. The chip of claim 1 , wherein a plurality of nucleic acid species in a nucleic acid sample generated for DNA sequencing application can be detected with starting with a single copy of a DNA template for PCR amplification.

9. The chip of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of microfluidic channels further comprises a surface coating.

10. The chip of claim 9 wherein the surface coating is hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMA), poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), poly(dimethyl acrylamide) (PDMA), poly(vinylpyrrolidinone), dimethylacrylamide (DMA), diethylacrylamide DEA, poly(diethylacrylamide) and mixtures thereof.

11. The chip of claim 9 wherein the each of the plurality of microfluidic channels further comprises a sieving matrix.

12. The chip of claim 11 wherein the sieving matrix comprises a linear or cross-linked poly (N,N-dialkylacrylamide), linear polyacrylamide, polydimethylacrylamide, polyvinylpyrrolydinone, or combinations thereof.

13. The chip of claim 12 wherein the sieving matrix comprises 1-50 wt % polyacrylamide.

14. The chip of claim 1 further comprising a porous layer between each cathode well and each microfluidic channel, wherein the porous layer is capable of substantially blocking passage of gas bubbles from the cathode wells into each microfluidic channel.

15. The chip of claim 14 wherein the porous layer comprises a glass frit, a polymer frit, a polymer membrane, or a polymer filter.

16. The chip of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of microfluidic channels further comprises an injector for simultaneously injecting a plurality of samples to be analyzed, one sample into each of the plurality of microfluidic channels.

17. An apparatus comprising

a support comprising a second detection window; and

a chip according to claim 1 , wherein the chip is attached to the support and wherein the second detection window coincides with the detection window of the chip.

18. A method for electrophoretically separating and detecting a plurality of samples simultaneously comprising,

providing a plurality of samples into each of a plurality of microfluidic channels on a microchip according to claim 1 ;

applying an electric potential across the plurality of microfluidic channels to separate detectable species comprising each of the plurality of analysis samples;

detecting each of the detectable species comprising the plurality of separated samples at the detection window.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising the step of maintaining a substantially identical electric field across each of the plurality of microfluidic channels.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein an essentially identical electric field is maintained across each of the plurality of microfluidic channels by balancing the resistance of each portion of each of the plurality of microfluidic channels.

21. The method of claim 18 , wherein the detectable species comprise nucleic acids.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the detectable species comprise dyes functionally attached to the nucleic acids.

23. The chip of claim 1 , wherein the first via and the second via are comprised within the cover layer.

24. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the first via and the second via are comprised within the cover layer.

25. The chip of claim 1 , wherein the detection window plastic has a thickness between about 25 and 2000 μm.