Electrostatic control of ionic environment in a droplet based platform for biological applications
AssigneePurdue Research Foundation
InventorsMuhammad Ashraful Alam, Piyush Dak
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Abstract
A process and device for electrostatically controlling an ionic environment in a droplet, such as in a droplet-based platform including polymerase-chain reaction (PCR) applications. The process includes providing a chip that comprises at least a pair of electrodes, placing a salt-containing droplet on the chip, and then applying a bias across the electrodes to accumulate ions near surfaces of the electrodes, thereby depleting a bulk salt concentration in regions of the droplet away from the electrodes.
Claims20
A process for electrostatically controlling an ionic environment in a droplet, the process comprising:
- providing a chip that comprises at least a pair of electrodes;
- placing a salt-containing droplet on the chip so that the droplet contacts the pair of electrodes;
- and then
- applying a bias across the pair of electrodes to accumulate ions near surfaces of the electrodes, thereby reducing the salt concentration in regions of the droplet away from the electrodes.
A device for controlling an ionic environment in a droplet, comprising:
- a dielectric substrate;
- a biological sensor mounted to the substrate;
- and
- at least a pair of electrodes mounted to the substrate and electrically isolated from each other and from the sensor, the electrodes having a dentritic surface morphology;
- wherein the biological sensor is disposed between the pair of electrodes.
The device of claim 15, wherein the dentritic surface morphology is formed from Pt-black.
A process for performing a polymerase-chain reaction, comprising:
- providing a chip that comprises at least a pair of electrodes;
- placing a droplet comprising DNA, DNA primer, and polymerase on the chip so that the droplet contacts the pair of electrodes;
- applying a bias across the pair of electrodes to accumulate ions near surfaces of the electrodes, thereby reducing the bulk salt concentration in regions of the droplet away from the electrodes and denaturing the DNA in the droplet;
- controlling the temperature of the droplet to achieve annealing of the denatured DNA to the primer;
- and
- controlling the temperature of the droplet to achieve extension of the DNA using the polymerase.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.