Soft Cleaning of Wire-Immobilized Genetic Material

To automate the sample prep for MinION sequencing, we propose a paradigm shift in the inherently liquid-based, multi-step protocol. The traditionally labor-intense process will occur within disposable microfluidic ldquo;cardsrdquo; which have an unexpected feature. Each card will contain separate reaction wells where single operations will occur (e.g. lysis, fragmentation, amplification). However, these chambers will all remain physically isolated from one another, having no active fluidic interconnects between them. The target DNA will undergo each successive modification step ndash; moving from reaction well to reaction well ndash; simply by going through the intervening walls. This technique, which we call Soft Cleaning of Wire-Immobilized Genetic material (SCWI-G), constitutes a mechanical method of isolating and purifying nucleic acids.