Ultrafast and Real-Time Nanoplasmonic On-Chip Polymerase Chain Reaction for Rapid and Quantitative Molecular Diagnostics

Hot on the heels of viral DNA

28 October 2021

A microfluidic-chip-based device that offers ultrafast detection of target DNA could help to fast track the monitoring of contagious viral diseases.

Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests offer a highly accurate way to diagnose viral diseases such as COVID-19. They work by repeatedly amplifying any traces of target viral DNA in a sample by a chemical process driven by repeated temperature cycling. But the 40 temperature cycles needed to amplify the DNA to detectable levels take about an hour using today’s benchtop PCR systems.

Now, five Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) researchers and two collaborators have developed a chip-based device that operates 12 times faster than conventional PCR machines.

The chip uses glass nanopillars decorated with gold nanoparticles for ultrarapid heating and cooling, completing 40 temperature cycles in just over 5 minutes to detect the virus that causes COVID-19.

The device potentially offers ultrafast PCR-based viral detection for point-of-care applications, the researchers say.

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References

1. ACS Nano 15, 10194–10202 (2021). doi: 10.1021/acsnano.1c02154