Abstract
Reducing the risk of (cross-)contamination, improving the chain of custody, providing fast analysis times and options of direct analysis at crime scenes: these requirements within forensic DNA analysis can be met upon using microfluidic devices. To become generally applied in forensics, the most important requirements for microfluidic devices are: analysis time, method of DNA detection and biocompatibility of used materials. In this work an overview is provided about biosensing of DNA, by DNA profiling via standard short tandem repeat (STR) analysis or by next generation sequencing. The material of which a forensic microfluidic device is made is crucial: it should for example not inhibit DNA amplification and its thermal conductivity and optical transparency should be suitable for achieving fast analysis. The characteristics of three materials frequently used materials, i.e., glass, silicon and PDMS, are given, in addition to a promising alternative, viz. cyclic olefin copolymer (COC). New experimental findings are presented about the biocompatibility of COC and the use of COC chips for multiple displacement amplification and real-time monitoring of DNA amplification.
Highlights
Sampling and securing traces at a crime scene is a crucial step in the police investigation process.Information obtained at this stage immediately gives direction to the investigation
Since sample handling in microfluidic devices is done in a sealed microfluidic environment, chips improve the chain of custody and lower the risk ofcontamination
After amplification of the DNA, by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the separation and detection of the amplified DNA must be carried out, which is usually accomplished by capillary electrophoresis (CE) [15]
Summary
H. Tromplaan 28, 7513 AB Enschede, The Netherlands. NanoLab Cleanroom, MESA+ Institute, University of Twente, Drienerlolaan 5, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. Current address: Micronit Microtechnologies BV, Colosseum 15, 7521 PV Enschede, The Netherlands. Received: 2 August 2020; Accepted: 30 September 2020; Published: 12 October 2020
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