Sorting biomolecules with microdevices

Abstract

Micro- and nanofabrication techniques have provided an unprecedented opportunity to create a designed world in which separation and fractionation technologies which normally occur on the macroscopic scale can be optimized by designing structures which utilize the basic physics of the process, or new processes can be realized by building structures which normally do not exist without external design. Since microfabrication is exceedingly sophisticated in its development, it is possible to design and construct highly creative microdevices which allow one to probe specific aspects of biological objects. We give examples of uses of micro- and nanofabrication which, as opposed to simply shrinking the size of the vessels or tubes used in macroscopic lab environments, utilize our understanding of the physics of the process to take advantage of fabrication technologies.