Facile Coupling of Droplet Magnetofluidic-Enabled Automated Sample Preparation for Digital Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing and Analysis.

Digital nucleic acid amplification testing (dNAAT) and analysis techniques, such as digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR), have become useful clinical diagnostic tools. However, nucleic acid (NA) sample preparation preceding dNAAT is generally laborious and performed manually, thus creating the need for a simple sample preparation technique and a facile coupling strategy for dNAAT. Therefore, we demonstrate a simple workflow which automates magnetic bead-based extraction of NAs with a one-step transfer to dNAAT.

Remote calorimetric detection of urea via flow injection analysis.

The design and development of a calorimetric biosensing system enabling relatively high throughput sample analysis are reported. The calorimetric biosensor system consists of a thin (∼20 μm) micromachined Y-cut quartz crystal resonator (QCR) as a temperature sensor placed in close proximity to a fluidic chamber packed with an immobilized enzyme. Layer by layer enzyme immobilization of urease is demonstrated and its activity as a function of the number of layers, pH, and time has been evaluated.