Fast and continuous-flow detection and separation of DNA complexes and DNA in nanofluidic chip format

Fast separation of DNA and detection of protein/DNA complexes are important in many state-of-the-art molecular medicine technologies, like the production of gene vaccines or medical diagnostics. Here, we describe a nanofluidic chip-based technique for fast, efficient, and virtually label-free detection and separation of protein/DNA and drug/DNA complexes and topological DNA variants. The mechanism is based on a continuous-flow dielectrophoresis at a nanoslit and allows efficient separation of small DNA fragments (<7,000 base pairs) and fast detection of DNA complexes within 1 min.