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Updated: May 30, 2026

Laser Microirradiation to Study In Vivo Cellular Responses to Simple and Complex DNA Damage
Published on: January 31, 2018
Real-time damage monitoring of irradiated DNA
Ilija Pješčić1, Collin A Tranter, James C Haywood
1Institute for Micromanufacturing, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana 71272, USA.
Abstract:
This article presents a microfluidic technique for the real-time analysis of DNA damage due to radiation exposure. A continuous-flow spatial melting analysis was performed every three seconds on a sample of isolated DNA while it was being irradiated. The formation of photoproducts being caused by the UV-C radiation was monitored during the process. Cumulative damage produced distinct changes in the DNA melting curves, characterized by a shifting and broadening of the melting peaks. The design of the microfluidic device, the experimental procedure, and the analysis algorithm and interactive GUI are discussed herein. In addition, the advantages of this system are correlated to specific needs of related scientific studies, such as the investigation of sequence-specific damage susceptibility and the characterization of exposure-damage nonlinearities.
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