Personalized medicine Imec proposes lab on chip for SNP detection in DNA

January 31, 2011 — Researchers at Imec proposed a portable, lab-on-a-chip system for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection in DNA at IEEE’s International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM, 12/6-12/8/10, San Francisco, CA; paper #36.3, "Design and fabrication of a biomedical lab-on-chip system for SNP detection in DNA"). The research has implications for personalized medicine, enabling doctors to travel to patients in their homes to personalize/customize their medical treatments.

Maaike Op de Beeck, program manager Human++, Heterogeneous Integrated Microsystems Department, at Imec, met with Debra Vogler, senior technical editor, at IEDM and provided background on the research in a podcast interview.

Listen to Op de Beeck’s interview: Download (for iPhone/iPod users) or Play Now

"We all have DNA of course, but sometimes there are errors in its duplication," said Op de Beeck. "When there is an error in just one single base pair, we call it an SNP." Often SNPs have no consequence; however, sometimes they do, explains Op de Beeck. And they result in differences between people, with some SNPs being an indication of a predisposition for certain diseases. This information can be used by doctors to identify personalized/optimized treatment of diseases during home visits, or even possibly in nursing homes. Hospitals typically use larger table-top tools for fluid manipulation during such a procedure, Op de Beeck tells ElectroIQ, but they might also be interested in the smaller, faster, and portable aspects of the lab-on-chip device, she suggests.

A key component of the lab-on-chip device is a Si-based micro-pillar filter that enables separation of DNA segments with different length. An on-chip integrated conductive polymer actuator generates the high pressure required to sustain the fluid flow through the system.

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