New Miniaturized Device for Lab-on-a-Chip Separations

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed an elegantly simple, miniaturized technique for rapidly separating minute samples of proteins, amino acids and other chemical mixtures. A low-cost prototype device described in a recent paper can run up to eight separations simultaneously in a space about the size of a quarter, highlighting the technique's potential for use in microfluidic "lab-on-a-chip" systems. Conventional electrophoresis instruments separate mixtures of electrically charged species--DNA fragments, for example--by injecting a discrete sample of the mixture at one end of a chemical race track, such as a capillary tube filled with a buffer solution, and applying a high voltage between the sample and the other end of the track. Depending on their size, charge and chemical "mobility," the individual components of the mixture move down the track at different rates, gradually separating into individual bands. If two of the components move at very similar rates, it will require a relatively long channel--up to 50 centimeters or longer--to separate them effectively. The new NIST technique... Whole article: "http://www.physorg.com":[ http://www.physorg.com/news88451386.html]

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