Abstract
Microfluidic biochips hold great potential for liquid analysis in biomedical research and clinical diagnosis. However, the lack of integrated on-chip liquid mixing, bioseparation and signal transduction presents a major challenge in achieving rapid, ultrasensitive bioanalysis in simple microfluidic configurations. Here we report magnetic nanochain integrated microfluidic chip built upon the synergistic functions of the nanochains as nanoscale stir bars for rapid liquid mixing and as capturing agents for specific bioseparation. The use of magnetic nanochains enables a simple planar design of the microchip consisting of flat channels free of common built-in components, such as liquid mixers and surface-anchored sensing elements. The microfluidic assay, using surface-enhanced Raman scattering nanoprobes for signal transduction, allows for streamlined parallel analysis of multiple specimens with greatly improved assay kinetics and delivers ultrasensitive identification and quantification of a panel of cancer protein biomarkers and bacterial species in 1 μl of body fluids within 8 min.
Highlights
Microfluidic biochips hold great potential for liquid analysis in biomedical research and clinical diagnosis
Biofunctionalized surfaces serve to separate and enrich targets of interest from complex fluid samples, which is key to specific detection in subsequent signal transduction[11,12] On the other hand, spatial confinement in microchannels leads to low Reynolds number fluids under laminar flow, which causes inefficient mixing across the channels mainly controlled by diffusion[13]
Decoupling these functions traditionally undertaken by on-chip liquid mixers and sensing elementsimmobilized surfaces from microfluidic systems enable a simple planar design of the MiChip consisting of flat channels free of built-in components
Summary
Microfluidic biochips hold great potential for liquid analysis in biomedical research and clinical diagnosis. We report magnetic nanochain integrated microfluidic chip built upon the synergistic functions of the nanochains as nanoscale stir bars for rapid liquid mixing and as capturing agents for specific bioseparation. The use of magnetic nanochains enables a simple planar design of the microchip consisting of flat channels free of common built-in components, such as liquid mixers and surface-anchored sensing elements. In our Magchain-integrated microchip (MiChip), bioconjugated nanochains are actuated by tailored magnetic fields to play dual-functional roles as nanoscale stir bars to promote rapid active liquid mixing and capture agents for bioseparation. Highly efficient concerted liquid mixing and bioseparation were not performed by magnetic nanostructures for sensing applications Decoupling these functions traditionally undertaken by on-chip liquid mixers and sensing elementsimmobilized surfaces from microfluidic systems enable a simple planar design of the MiChip consisting of flat channels free of built-in components. The MiChip assay allows rapid, parallel analysis of small volumes (~1 μl) of body fluid specimens, achieving sensitively and selectively quantification, and profiling of cancer protein markers in serum samples from 20 cancer patients and specific bacteria in human saliva
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