Integrated Nucleic Acid Analysis in Parallel Matrix Architecture

Abstract

With the advent of the postgenomic era, accurate and fast nucleic analyses are becoming more important with reasonable running costs. Nucleic acids carry precious information important for the understanding of many complex biological processes critical for diagnosis and therapy of a wide range of diseases. This information is also instrumental in the classification of organisms. Recent developments in microfluidics provide a new methodology with unprecedented sensitivity for mRNA isolation from single mammalian cells and genomic DNA processing of multiple bacterial cells. In this chapter, nucleic acid analyses on microfluidic chips with particular emphasis on parallel matrix architecture, which will soon play an important role in applications of microfluidics on the development of proteomics and functional genomics, will be discussed.