Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in flow-through micro-reactors: Thermal and fluidic concepts

This paper presents a novel flow-through reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) micro-reactor with optimized thermal and fluidic characteristics. We have designed a micro-reactor comprising a heating plate for different temperature zones and a fluidic chip with serpentine micro-channels. One feature of this chip system is the generation of a segmented flow for high-throughput analysis of PCR samples. We show the first successful reactions on the chip with different flow regimes and variations of PCR methods from a standard PCR to one-step RT-PCR reactions. The aim of the experiments was the detection of the HPV 16 DNA genome and of viral oncogene transcripts, respectively. Both markers are of importance in medical diagnostics.