ABSTRACT
Nucleic acid hybridization techniques feature the use of a probe nucleic acid molecule to detect a target nucleic acid molecule. With the recent growth of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), microfluidic technology has been developing rapidly with many applications in the last decade. Microfluidics deals with the transfer and control of a small amount of fluids in microscale flow configurations. The microfluidic method is suitable for being incorporated into low-density DNA microarray analysis. In low-density DNA microarray analysis, the conventional pin-spotting method has been used to create dot-like probe arrays. The performance of the subsequent hybridization assay is thus heavily influenced by the quality of immobilized probe spots. Low-density probe line arrays created from microfluidic methods have been used successfully for nucleic acid analysis. In these applications, a two-dimensional (2D) intersection approach was used, and this approach resembled the microfluidic immunoassays proposed by Ligler and coworkers. The 2D microfluidic microarray format is well suited for parallel sample hybridizations.
