A nanofluidic system for massively parallel PCR

Massively parallel nanofluidic systems are lab-on-a-chip devices where solution phase biochemical and biological analyses are implemented in high density arrays of nanoliter holes micro-machined in a thin platen. Polymer coatings make the interior surfaces of the holes hydrophilic and the exterior surface of the platen hydrophobic for precise and accurate self-metered loading of liquids into each hole without cross-contamination. We have created a "nanoplate" based on this concept, equivalent in performance to standard microtiter plates, having 3072 thirty-three nanoliter holes in a stainless steel platen the dimensions of a microscope slide. We report on the performance of this device for PCR-based single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping or quantitative measurement of gene expression by real-time PCR in applications ranging from plant and animal diagnostics, agricultural genetics and human disease research.