Gene transcript amplification from cell lysates in continuous-flow microfluidic devices.

Continuous-flow analysis, where samples circulate encapsulated in a carrier fluid is an attractive alternative to batch processing for high-throughput devices that use the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Challenges of continuous-flow prototypes include the hydrodynamic and biological incompatibility of the carrier fluid, microchannel fouling, sample carryover and the integration of a nucleic acid extraction and reverse transcription step. We tested two homemade, continuous-flow thermocycler microdevices for amplification of reverse-transcribed messages from cell lysates without nucleic acid extraction.