An electrokinetically controlled microchip for studying binding interactions of nucleic acids with cells

This paper presents an electrokinetically controlled microfluidic chip that allows investigation of binding interactions between nucleic acids and target cells. The microchip consists of two microchambers for capture of cells using an integrated microweir structure and collection of DNA strands, respectively. The chambers are connected by a microchannel filled with agarose gel. In the chip, nucleic acids that interact with target cells are electrokinetically separated and isolated from the cells through the gel-filled channel for subsequent analysis. Experimental results demonstrate that our microchip can potentially be used for studying interactions of nucleic acids with target cells in practical biomedical applications.