Abstract
The paper presents an integrated automatic micro Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) system for molecular diagnosis. The developed system can detect viruses with a high sensitivity and specificity using antibody-conjugated superparamagnetic beads. The target viruses were first captured by conjugated antibodies on the magnetic beads and then attracted by a magnetic field generated by micro-electromagnets. After washing and a purification process, the virus RNA was extracted and transcripted to complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA), followed by a nucleic acid amplification process using a micro RT-PCR module. With this approach, the virus can be successfully enriched and analyzed. The integrated system performed the whole process automatically utilizing an on-chip integrated microfluidic module. This study performs the successful detection of two different types of viruses, Dengue virus serotype 2 and Enterovirus 71 (EV71), using the developed integrated system. The integrated microsystem can achieve automatic mixing, incubation, purification, transportation, and nucleic acid amplification of the target virus, making it a crucial platform for biological and medical applications. © 2006 IEEE.