Abstract
We have developed a portable device for reverse transcription (RT), the first step in ribonucleic acid (RNA) expression analysis. RNA expression analysis is significant for early detection of diseases. For instance, expression level of some kinds of RNAs, such as microRNAs, upregulate at an early phase when patients affect a cancer. If we can check the expression level of these RNAs easily, we can detect the cancer at an early phase and decrease the death rate of the cancer substantially. Although quantitative RT polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) is generally used in the analysis, there are two problems for early detection diagnosis. First, the conventional qRT-PCR devices are too heavy and large for portable use. Also, the conventional devices require a lot of expensive reagents, resulting in high medical cost for the patients. To solve these problems, we aimed to develop a portable micro device for qRT-PCR. In this report, we achieved to perform RT by micro scale with the prototype device. By using the device, we have succeeded in performing accurate RT about various RNAs.
