1999/11/09 by Joel S. Bader, Richard W. Hammond, Steven A. Henck +8 · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Diffusion and Search Dynamics #Nanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies #cond-mat.soft #physics.bio-ph #q-bio #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1073/pnas.96.23.13165
published as Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96(23): 13165-13169 (1999) · Latex: 8 pages, 4 figures
openalex publication_date 1999/11/09 · arxiv created 1999/12/22 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We have micromachined a silicon-chip device that transports DNA with a Brownian ratchet that rectifies the Brownian motion of microscopic particles. Transport properties for a DNA 50-mer agree with theoretical predictions, and the DNA diffusion constant agrees with previous experiments. This type of micromachine could provide a generic pump or separation component for DNA or other charged species as part of a microscale lab-on-a-chip. A device with reduced feature size could produce a size-based separation of DNA molecules, with applications including the detection of single-nucleotide polymorphisms.