Using Organic solvents to improve the capture of nucleic acids.

Dielectrophoresis has been amply used as an alternative to manipulate molecules without electric charge but despite large progress in aqueous media, the behavior of nucleic acid in organic solvent and aqueous:organic mixtures has not been explored, preventing its use in application within broad chemical and pharmaceutical industries. This project intends to explore the potential of microfluidic devices developed by imec for DEP handling of nucleic acids in this uncharted territory. The student is expected to evaluate the performance of the device for different conditions and different lengths of nucleic acid, through a design of experiment, and report the optimal conditions for different potential applications.

Techniques to be learned: nucleic acid manipulation, dielectrophoresis, confocal microscopy, design of experiments.