Luminescent rhenium fac-tricarbonyl-containing complexes of androgenic oxo-steroids.

A new route to luminescent derivatives of androgenic steroids containing a ketone group in the 3- or 17-position has been developed. Reaction with the fac-Re(CO)(3)Cl complex of 3,3'-diamino-2,2'-bipyridine (complex 1) afforded a cyclic aminal product with different steroids. The rate of reaction and yield varies according to the conjugation or steric hindrance around the ketone group.

Dual-domain microchip-based process for volume reduction solid phase extraction of nucleic acids from dilute, large volume biological samples.

A microfluidic device was developed to carry out integrated volume reduction and purification of nucleic acids from dilute, large volume biological samples commonly encountered in forensic genetic analysis. The dual-phase device seamlessly integrates two orthogonal solid-phase extraction (SPE) processes, a silica solid phase using chaotrope-driven binding and an ion exchange phase using totally aqueous chemistry (chitosan phase), providing the unique capability of removing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) inhibitors used in silica-based extractions (guanidine and isopropanol). Nucleic acids from a large volume sample are shown to undergo a substantial volume reduction on the silica phase, followed by a more stringent extraction on the chitosan phase.