Accelerating the Mass Transport of DNA Biomolecules Onto DNA Microarray for Enhanced Detection by Electrokinetic Concentration in a Microfluidic Chip

Morpholinos (MOs) are synthetic nucleic acids analogues with a non-charged backbone of morpholine rings. To enhance the MO-DNA hybridization assay speed, we propose the integration of a MO microarray with an ion concentration polarization (ICP) based microfluidic concentrator. The ICP concentrator collects target biomolecules from a ∼μL fluidic DNA sample and concentrates them electrokinetically into a ∼nL plug located in the vicinity of the MO probes. ICP preconcentration not only reduces the analyte diffusion length but also increases the binding reaction rate, and as a result, ICP-enhanced MO microarrays allow much faster hybridization than standard diffusion-limited MO microarrays.