DNA hybridization enhancement using piezoelectric microagitation through liquid medium coupling

The DNA hybridization is a promising analysis technique in molecular biology. The target DNA were probed on the glass substrate layer then the complementary DNA sequence will diffuse passes the small bound probe. Conventional DNA microarray hybridization relies on diffusion of target to surface-bound probes, and thus is a rate-limited process. In this paper, an agitating technique based on piezoelectric actuators assisted with column of liquid that was developed to accelerate hybridization process is explained. The ultrasonic acoustic wave is transmitted through liquid medium laminated under the microarray. By measuring the movement of 4.5 ¿m diameter polystyrene bead, it shows that the velocity of the bead under the piezoelectric agitation were up to 5.8 ¿m/s. The hybridization results show that the hybridization intensity and homogeneity from this device are better than the signal from conventional method. Therefore, the advantages of this device are increasing the hybridization signal and improving homogeneity across the microarrays which lead to the application of analysis with small amount of samples.