The aim of this project was to work towards developing a droplet-based microfluidic device which can perform cell lysis, Whole Genome Amplification (WGA) and storage of the amplified DNA. This would provide an automated biobanking device capable of high-throughput sample processing whilst shielding the samples from the sample loss and contamination commonly experienced by conventional, isolated sample handling methods.WGA has been examined using two commercially available WGA kits (GenomiPhi V2 and HY) to produce a continuous flow device that is capable of amplifying both human genomic DNA (gDNA) and bacterial plasmid DNA samples in nanolitre volume droplets. A positive effect of reducing reaction volumes on the amplification of bacterial plasmid DNA was shown by obtaining an increase in yield with decreasing volumes. It was shown, however, that a reduction in the volume of the WGA reaction has a negative impact on the amplification of human gDNA, in terms of both reduced yield and copy number variation (CNV). Furthermore, a novel method for reducing this CNV has been achieved by pooling the products of multiple reaction volumes. Finally, a cell lysis device has been developed which can perform rapid lysis of a human neuroblastoma cell line in continuously flowing droplets through addition of an alkaline solution.These devices provide an advantage over previously developed methods, displaying cell lysis of a human cell line and amplification of both human gDNA and plasmid DNA, while the continuous flow design of the devices allows for both high-throughput processing of samples and the future integration of the devices to form a μTAS biobanking device.
Date of Award | 31 Dec 2013 |
---|
Original language | English |
---|
Awarding Institution | - The University of Manchester
|
---|
Supervisor | Nicholas Goddard (Supervisor), Peter Fielden (Supervisor) & Philip Day (Supervisor) |
---|
- Biobanking
- Miniaturisation
- Microfluidics
- WGA
- Cell lysis
Development of a DNA extraction, amplification and storage microdevice
Markey, A. (Author). 31 Dec 2013
Student thesis: Phd