Continuous Flow PCR on A Chip

A micromachined continuous flow reactor has been successfully used to perform the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) at ultra high speed. The device is analogous to an electronic amplifier, and relies on the movement of sample through thermostated temperature zones on a glass microchip. Input and output of material (DNA) is continuous, and amplification independent of input concentration. A 20-cycle PCR amplification of a 176-base pair fragment from the Neisseria Gonorrhoeae DNA gyrase gene (gyrA) was performed at various flow rates, resulting in a total reaction time of between 90 seconds and 18.7 minutes.