Research and Application Progress of Digital Nucleic Acid Amplification Detection Techniques

Recently, micro/nano-scaled fluidic control technologies have been developed to be the alternative to traditional analysis approaches due to the capability of realizing miniaturized multiphase and multistep reactions. The perfect combination of these techniques and nucleic acid amplification methods effectively promotes the establishment and development of digital nucleic acid detection (dNAD) techniques. As a single-molecule analysis approach, dNAD plays an essential role in molecular diagnosis. In this paper, the research and application progress of dNAD techniques are reviewed, including the development history, principle, superiority, and the future prospect of dNAD.

Graphical abstractAs the new “gold standard” of detection technique in the future, digital nucleic acid amplification based on micro- or nano-scaled fluidic control enable single molecule analysis with high sensitivity and accuracy in the fields of clinical diagnosis, food safety monitor, pathogen detection, genome research, and so on.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide