Capillaries on a chip
Aclara BioSciences Inc. is taking traditional capillary electrophoresis into a new dimension by integrating it with chip technology. The company's microfluidics technology uses electric fields to move fluids through capillaries on the surface of chips - LabCards - thereby enabling miniaturization, integration and automation of multi-step procedures.
"Traditional capillary electrophoresis involves separation in a one-dimensional tube with the purpose of separating complex samples into components," said Herbert Hooper, executive vice president and chief technical officer. "We have expanded the technology into two and three dimensions - the capillaries are interconnected on a chip. This interconnection allows for complex fluid manipulation without valves or moving parts."...