Cylindrical Compact Thermal-Cycling Device for Continuous-Flow Polymerase Chain Reaction

A compact, thermal-cycling device for high-throughput continuous-flow polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been developed, which consists of a flow-through capillary and a cylindrical heating-block assembly. A 3.5-m-long fused-silica capillary coils helically, with 33 turns, up around the 30-mm-diameter assembly of three equally divided thermostating copper blocks for melting, annealing, and extension. An injected PCR mixture undergoes one cycle of PCR each turn. A continuous-flow PCR of one sample and also a segmented-flow PCR of four different samples have been successfully demonstrated. The present device can easily evolve into a parallel-processing, multistation compact device and be modified to have real-time PCR capability. This solid-based compact PCR device, therefore, has a potentiality to be the format of choice when developed for a portable system.