High lane density slab-gel electrophoresis using micromachined instrumentation

In this paper, micromachined pipette arrays (MPAs) and microcombs were stud ied as a means of enabling high lane density gel electrophoresis. The MPA p rovide a miniaturized format to interface sub-microliter volumes of samples between macroscale sample preparation formats and microscale biochemical a nalysis systems. The microcombs provide a means of creating sample loading wells in the gel material on the same center-to-center spacing as the MPAs. Together, the two micromachined instruments provide an alternative to curr ent combs and pipetting technologies used for Georgia Institute of Technolo gy, creating sample loading wells and sample delivery in gel electrophoresi s systems. Atlanta, GA, USA Using three designs for the microcomb-MPA pair, center-to-center spacings of 1.0 mm, 500 mum, and 250 mum are studied. The results demonstrate an approximate 10-fold increase in lane density and a 10-fold reduction in sample size from 5 muL to 500 pL. As a result, the num ber of theoretical plates has increased 2.5-fold, while system resolution h as increased 1.5-fold over the conventional agarose gel systems. An examina tion of changes in resolution across the width of individual separation lan es in both systems revealed dependence in the case of the conventional gels and no dependence for the gels loaded with the micromachined instrumentati on.