A microfluidic device for temperature-triggered dna amplification in agarose microbeads

This paper reports the development of a microfluidic device for the generation of solidified microbeads, and on-chip monitoring of compartmentalized biochemical reactions. We generated agarose microdroplets using a push-pull system, which consists in pushing oil and pulling emulsion. Agarose sample is introduced in inlet and aspirated consecutively. Ultralow volumes of agarose have been used (5 to 10μl) and after microdroplets generation, no dead volume remains in inlet. Once microdroplets have been generated, they are cooled in agarose microbeads thanks to two cooling copper wires. Finally, to validate our system, we performed and monitored a DNA isothermal amplification on-chip.