Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Gold coating
DNA combing
PDMS
DNA wire
Imprinting
DNA/water
Polymer resin
Glass
Microwell
Gold etching
Nanochannel
Figure 18.1
(See companion CD for color igure.)
. Fabrication. schematics. of. DNA. combining. and. imprinting. (DCI).
technique.. (Guan,. J.,. Boukany,. P.E.,. Hemminger,. O.. et. al.:. Large. laterally. ordered. nanochannel. arrays. from.
DNA.combing.and.imprinting..
Adv. Mater
..2010..22..3397-4001..Copyright.2010,.Wiley-VCH.Verlag.GmbH.&.Co..
KGaA..Reproduced.with.permission.)
18.4 Biomedical Applications of Nanofluidics
Biomolecules.such.as.DNA,.RNA,.and.protein.are.important.due.to.the.fact.that.they.are.
forms. of. life.. In. these. macromolecules,. both. DNA. and. RNA. carry. genetic. information,.
but. DNA. is. more. important. in. molecular. biology. and. cellular. processes.. Particularly,.
the.determination.of.the.whole.sequence.of.the.human.genome.(3.billion.base.pairs.and.
20,000-25,000. genes). is. extremely. important. in. medicine. and. health. sciences. since. it.
provides. solutions. at. the. level. of. molecular. biology,. the. most. eficient. way. to. diagnose,.
treat,.and.prevent.human.diseases.associated.with.single-genetic.and.polygenetic.causes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Genome_Project).
DNA. sequencing. is. a. very. complicated. and. time-consuming. process,. and. automation.
is.required.to.facilitate.the.process..Two.key.steps,.i.e.,.the.separation.of.DNA.fragments.
with.different.sizes.and.the.mapping.of.DNA.fragments,.might.become.much.faster.and.
more. eficient. through. nanoluidics,. as. compared. to. the. traditional. gel. or. capillary. EP.
technology.. We. are. thoroughly. discussing. the. nanoluidics-based. DNA. separation. and.
mapping.in.Sections.18.4.1.and.18.4.2,.respectively.
In.Section.18.4.3,.we.will.briely.discuss.and.summarize.the.current.state-of-the-art.gene.
delivery.that.uses.electroporation..We.also.introduce.the.irst.effort.on.nanoluidics-based.
electroporation.by.Lee.and.coworkers.at.the.Ohio.State.University.(Boukany.et.al..2011)..
More.details.on.nanotechnologies.in.gene.delivery.can.be.found.in.Chapter.24.
18.4.1 Nanofluidic DNA Separation
Separation.by.size.has.been.achieved.by.pulsed-ield.gel.or.capillary.EP,.which.utilizes.
either.gel.or.entangled.polymer.matrices.to.create.size-dependent.electrophoretic.mobility.
