Microfluidics and Its Applications in Bionanotechnology
Several advantages of microfluidic systems such as rapid control, reduced size, low costs, large-scale integration and in vivo simulation of cellular microenvironments make them suitable for diverse bionanotechnological applications. This chapter reviews
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Microfluidics and Its Applications in Bionanotechnology Z.P. Çakar and B. Sönmez
Abstract Several advantages of microfluidic systems such as rapid control, reduced size, low costs, large-scale integration and in vivo simulation of cellular microenvironments make them suitable for diverse bionanotechnological applications. This chapter reviews major current and potential microfluidic applications in bionanotechnology, including miniaturized devices related to common molecular biological techniques such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), DNA microarray and electrophoresis; microfluidic bioreactors; and monitoring microbial behaviour by microfluidics. Additionally, present applications and future potential of microfluidics in microbial strain development and single cell analysis/characterization are discussed.
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Introduction to Bionanotechnology and Microfluidics
Biological systems consist of complex molecular machineries, as shown by modern molecular biology research. Individual molecules are the functional constituents of these complex machineries. There are two major reasons that make living systems crucial for nanoscience and nanotechnology. One reason is the strong evidence provided by biological systems for the functionality of nanostructured systems. This
Z.P. Çakar (&) B. Sönmez Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Faculty of Science and Letters, Istanbul Technical University, 34469 Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey e-mail: [email protected] B. Sönmez e-mail: [email protected] Z.P. Çakar B. Sönmez Dr. Orhan Öcalgiray Molecular Biology, Biotechnology and Genetics Research Center (ITU-MOBGAM), Istanbul Technical University, Maslak, Istanbul 34469, Turkey © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 H. Ünlü et al. (eds.), Low-Dimensional and Nanostructured Materials and Devices, NanoScience and Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-25340-4_24
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Z.P. Çakar and B. Sönmez
is also known as biomimetics, a technology development approach inspired by biology. The second reason is that understanding life at nanoscale has a wide range of important applications in medicine, agriculture, engineering and sustainability of life. Using biomimetic approaches, self-assembly of biological molecules in vitro, namely outside a living organism, has been used to reconstitute biological function, which is the basis of bionanotechnology [1]. The invention of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method is a breakthrough in modern molecular biology, and also has significant impact on bionanotechnology. This method enables in vitro DNA replication. In this method, there is no need for the whole molecular machinery to denature DNA and to polymerize it, but finding a thermostable DNA polymerase, such as the one isolated from the thermophilic bacterium Thermus aquaticus, is necessary. At the RNA level, DNA microarrays constitute a powerful method by reading the RNA present in a biological sample and determining which genes are expressed at a particular time or under particular conditions. Thus, they provide valuable inf
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