A Lab-on-a-Chip For The Extraction Of Bacterial Nucleic Acids From Whole Human Blood

We present a lab-on-a-chip for the extraction of bacterial nucleic acids from whole human blood (WHB). Compared to classical methods, with extraction times between hours and days, the presented chip can lyse the bacteria suspended in WHB and extract their nucleic acids within three minutes. This is achieved by directly coupling thermal lysis to gel-electrophoresis on a single microfluidic platform.

INTRODUCTION

Fast identification of the infectious organism is especially important in the diagnosis of blood stream infections. Caused by the currently used time-consuming and work intensive methods like culturing the blood as well as the high mortality rate of the infection, antibiotics are often administered preventively, which may also encourage the formation of resistances. In contrast, nucleic acid amplification techniques like PCR promise faster diagnosis results, but have been problematic in the presence of blood components. [4]