MICROFLUIDIC DEVICES
The present invention provides novel microfluidic substrates and methods that are useful for performing biological, chemical and diagnostic assays. The substrates can include a plurality of electrically addressable, channel bearing fluidic modules integrally arranged such that a continuous channel is provided for flow of immiscible fluids.
1 . A method for detecting a nucleic acid, the method comprising:
providing a nucleic acid and a microbead;
encapsulating the nucleic acid and the microbead into a droplet;
conducting an amplification reaction on the nucleic acid in the droplet in a manner that the nucleic acid becomes bound to the microbead; and
moving the amplified bead-bound nucleic acid to a detection module comprising an electrical sensor configured to detect an electrical characteristic arising from the bead-bound nucleic acid.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrical characteristic comprises an electrical field emitted by the bead-bound nucleic acid.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrical characteristic comprises capacitance or inductance.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrical sensor is connected to a processor.
5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the processor causes the bead-bound nucleic acids to be sorted.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the electric sensor is embedded within a wall of the detection module.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the nucleic acid comprises DNA or RNA.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the nucleic acid comprises an adaptor.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the droplets comprise primers.
10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the primers are coupled to the microbeads.
11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising shearing the nucleic acid
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the droplets are surrounded by an immiscible carrier fluid.
13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the amplification reaction comprises a polymerase chain reaction.
14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the amplification reaction comprises flowing the droplets through a microfluidic device to expose the droplets to thermocycling.
15 . The method of claim 5 , wherein sorting comprises distinguishing droplets comprising amplified bead-bound nucleic acid fragments from droplets that do not comprise amplified bead-bound nucleic acid fragments.