RNA trap by electric and hydraulic force fields in microfluidic channel

On this research, we discovered a phenomenon that charged biomolecules such as DNA are trapped and accumulated at the constricted position of a microfluidic chip when both hydro pressure and electric field are applied in opposite directions. Compared to DNA, RNA is more difficult to be trapped because of its instability. By mild denaturation which changes RNA comformation from block-like structures into chain-like structures, we succeeded in trapping RNA using this technique. This technique is expected to establish easy and practical device as a direct total RNA extraction tool from single cell or living tissues.