Detection of bacterial pathogen DNA using an integrated complementary metal oxide semiconductor microchip system with capillary array electrophoresis.

In this paper, we show an integrated complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-based microchip system with capillary array electrophoresis (CAE) for the detection of bacterial pathogen amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In order to demonstrate the efficacy of PCR reaction for the heat-labile toxin producing enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (E. coli), which causes cholera-like diarrhea, 100 bp DNA ladders were injected along with the PCR product. Poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) was used as the separation medium and provided separation resolution which was adequate for the identification of PCR product. The miniaturized integrated CMOS microchip system with CAE has excellent advantages over conventional instrumental systems for analysis of bacterial pathogens such as compactness, low cost, high speed, and multiplex capability. Furthermore, the miniaturized integrated CMOS microchip system should be compatible with a variety of microfabricated devices that aim at more rapid and high-throughput analysis.