The development of the micro device for early detection of cancer by RNA expression analysis

Abstract

RNA analysis is necessary for early detection of cancer. Although qRT-PCR is used for RNA analysis, there are two problems for early detection of cancer. First, conventional device is large and heavy, and also requires a lot of high cost reagents for analysis. Here, we have developed a micro device for accurate RT-PCR only by nanoliter scale samples. The size is only a finger-tip scale, about 2 cm by 1 cm and 1 cm high, but can perform four sample analysis all at once. This device is composed by assembling each modules that have the function for performing RT-PCR, reactor module or heater module for instance, sterically. By the device structure, we succeed to reduce the energy for performing the reaction. By using the device system, we confirmed the accurate RNA expression analysis by various genes.