(485b) Electro-Hydrodynamic Extraction of Nucleic Acids from Bovine Serum

A novel mechanism has been discovered which causes a long polyelectrolyte molecule to migrate across flow lines when subjected to simultaneous pressure gradient and opposing electric field. This migration allows polyelectrolytes, such as DNA, to be trapped within a small volume in a microfluidic channel, while all other mixture components are flushed from the channel. In this work, we explore an electro-hydrodynamically driven extraction process in microfluidic capillaries of lambda phage DNA (λ-DNA) from bovine serum albumin (BSA) as well as other biomolecules used to model cellular matrices. Extraction efficiency was characterized by maximum DNA recovery to BSA elution against varying magnitudes of pressure gradient, electric field, and capillary dimensions using quantitative epi-fluorescence microscopy and UV-vis spectrophotometry to optimize process operating conditions. Hence, DNA trapping based upon electro-hydrodynamic interactions in microfluidic capillaries is demonstrated as a facile and efficient processing technique for purification of nucleic acids.