Nanopillar, nanoball, and nanofibers for highly efficient analysis of biomolecules

DNA separation technologies combined with micro- and nanofabrication technologies found a breakthrough in genotyping and DNA sequencing. This tutorial review outlines the fabrication technologies for nano-scaled structures inside microchannels and how the precisely designed structures contribute to obtaining higher performances in DNA separations from the viewpoint of the fabrication process, "top-down" nanofabrication and "bottom-up" molecular self-assembly approaches. It was found that these nanofabricated structures generated the unique separation modes that could not be achieved by random-sized pores of conventional gel or polymer systems. Furthermore, it was found that nanoscale-specific phenomena such as electroosmotic flow should be taken into consideration for further development of nanofabricated structures in DNA analysis. These separation technologies will contribute as a core technology for a future integrated biomolecule anlaysis chip.