The development of a portable buoyancy-driven PCR system and its evaluation by capillary electrophoresis

Abstract

Rapid, low cost, and portable polymerase chain reaction system (PCR) can advance the diagnosis of infectious disease, especially for the third-world countries. Herein, we developed a compact PCR system based on Rayleigh–Bénard convection (RB-PCR). The optimal geometry parameters of the RB-PCR cell was obtained by finite element analysis. The amplification efficiency was improved by adding polyvinyl pyrrolidone into the PCR reagent and evaluated by detection of PCR products in capillary electrophoresis. Results demonstrate that λ-DNA was successfully amplified within 15min, and the PCR products was identified within 6.0min. 0.1% PVP (10mg/9ml) in PCR solution offers the best amplification efficiency for RB-PCR. The device is easy to assemble, and it is well suited for point of care applications.