Directly Accessible and Transferrable Nanofluidic Systems for Biomolecule Manipulation.

Abstract

Molecular detection and manipulation via nanofluidic systems offers new routes for single-molecule analysis to study epigenetic mechanisms and genetic mutation of disease. For detection of single biological molecule, many types of nanomicrofluidic systems have been utilized. Typically, mechanical tethering, fluidic pressure, chemical interactions, or electrical forces allow controllable attraction, enrichment, confinement, and elongation of target molecules. The currently available methods, however, are unable to offer both molecular manipulation and direct and concurrent assessment of target molecules in the system due to the nature of enclosed channels and associated fluidic components. Here, we introduce a wafer-scale nanofluidic system that incorporates an array of accessible open nanochannels and nano-microtrappers to enrich and elongate target molecules (DNA) via the combination of an electric field and hydrodynamic force. The open nanofluidic system allows easy access, direct observation, and manipulation of molecules in the nanochannels. The presence of a stretched single DNA and the efficacy of the nanofluidic system are studied by fluorescence microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Hybrid integration of the nanodevice fabrication with a material transfer printing technique enables to design a highly flexible and transferrable nanofluidic system after molecular concentration.