Recent Development of Droplet Microfluidics in Digital Polymerase Chain Reaction

Digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been experiencing a rapid development during the past few years. Compared with the traditional qPCR, the accuracy of digital PCR for the absolute quantification of target gene has been significantly improved with the same primer and probe as qPCR. The development of digital PCR is directly related to the development of microfluidics. The integrated fluid circuit, which has a complicated fabrication process with high cost, is an early integration of the microfluidics and digital PCR. Recently, researchers are trying to apply the droplet microfluidics in digital PCR. A droplet microfluidic chip is able to generate millions of droplets within a short time. Each of these droplets containing no more than one target gene is a reaction chamber during the amplification process. After amplification, each droplet is tested to obtain the absolute quantification of the target gene. This paper reviews the recent progress of droplet digital PCR and the application of droplet digital PCR in biological, medical and environmental area.

Graphical abstractRecently, more and more researchers are trying to apply the droplet microfluidics technology in digital PCR. The droplet microfluidic chips are able to generate millions of droplets within a short time. Each of these droplets that contains target gene is a single reaction chamber. After amplification, each droplet is tested to obtain the absolute quantification information of the target gene. This paper reviews the recent progress of droplet digital PCR and the applications of droplet digital PCR in biological, medical and environmental fields.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide