Device for stretching a polymer in a fluid sample

• US 9,028,776 B2
• Filed: 04/12/2013
• Issued: 05/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Toxic Reports LLC
• Original Assignee: Toxic Reports LLC
• Inventors: Meltzer, Robert H., Griffis, Joshua W.
• Primary Examiner(s): LUDLOW, JAN M
• Application Number:
  US13/862,129
• Publication Number:
  US 20130309780A1
• Time in Patent Office: 760 Days
• Field of Search: 422502-507
• US Class Current: 422/503
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2200/0663 Stretching or orienting elongated molecules or particles
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2300/0816 Cards, e.g. flat sample carriers usually with flow in two horizontal directions
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2300/0867 Multiple inlets and one sample wells, e.g. mixing, dilution
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 3/502761 specially adapted for handling suspended solids or molecules independently from the bulk fluid flow, e.g. for trapping or sorting beads, for physically stretching molecules investigating characteristics of particles G01N15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 1/286 involving mechanical work, e.g. chopping, disintegrating, compacting, homogenising microtomes G01N1/06; pulverising in general B02C; mixing in general B01F
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 436/25 including sample preparation

Abstract

The invention provides structures and methods that allow polymers of any length, including nucleic acids, to be stretched into a long, linear conformation for further analysis.

Claims

1. A device for stretching at least one polymer in a fluid sample, said device comprising:

an elongation structure, wherein said elongation structure comprises a tapered channel, said tapered channel decreasing in width from a first end to a second end, said tapered channel comprising;

a first zone having a first tapered shape;

a second zone having a second tapered shape, wherein the second tapered shape is different than the first tapered shape; and

wherein said at least one polymer, when present, moves along said tapered channel from said first end to said second end and is stretched,

the first tapered shape includes an increasing strain rate taper, and

the second tapered shape includes a constant strain rate taper.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the width w(x) of the tapered channel in the second zone is defined by the following equations:

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the width w(x) of the tapered channel in the second zone is defined by the following equations:

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the elongation structure is formed on a chip.

5. The device of claim 1, further comprising a delivery region for delivering said at least one polymer in said fluid sample to said elongation structure.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein said delivery region comprises a sample loading port and a delivery channel, said delivery channel leading into the elongation structure.

7. The device of claim 6, further comprising at least one buffer channel leading into the elongation structure.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the at least one buffer channel comprises at least two opposing buffer channels leading into the elongation structure.

9. A method of stretching at least one polymer in a fluid sample, the method comprising:

delivering a fluid sample into the device recited in claim 1;

stretching the at least one polymer in the first zone of the tapered channel; and

maintaining the tension on the at least one polymer in the second zone of the tapered channel.

10. A method comprising:

moving a polymer through the device recited in claim 1;

detecting an object-dependent impulse that conveys information about structural characteristics of the polymer;

obtaining an observed trace based on the detected impulse, wherein the observed trace is an intensity versus time trace;

applying an acceleration correction to the observed trace; and

obtaining a corrected intensity versus distance trace from the application of the acceleration correction to the observed trace.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the acceleration correction is defined by:

12. A device for stretching at least one polymer in a fluid sample, said device comprising:

an elongation structure, wherein said elongation structure comprises a tapered channel, said tapered channel decreasing in width from a first end to a second end, said tapered channel comprising;

a first zone having a first tapered shape;

a second zone having a second tapered shape, wherein the second tapered shape is different than the first tapered shape; and

wherein said at least one polymer, when present, moves along said tapered channel from said first end to said second end and is stretched,

wherein the first tapered shape includes an increasing strain rate taper, and

wherein a width w(x) of the tapered channel in the first zone is defined by the following equations;

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the width w(x) of the tapered channel in the second zone is defined by the following equations:

14. The device of claim 12, wherein the width w(x) of the tapered channel in the second zone is defined by the following equations:

15. A device for stretching at least one polymer in a fluid sample, said device comprising:

an elongation structure, wherein said elongation structure comprises a tapered channel, said tapered channel decreasing in width from a first end to a second end, said tapered channel comprising;

a first zone having a first tapered shape;

a second zone having a second tapered shape, wherein the second tapered shape is different than the first tapered shape; and

wherein said at least one polymer, when present, moves along said tapered channel from said first end to said second end and is stretched,

wherein the first tapered shape includes an increasing strain rate taper, and

wherein a width w(x) of the tapered channel in the first zone is defined by the following equations;

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the width w(x) of the tapered channel in the second zone is defined by the following equations:

17. The device of claim 15, wherein the width w(x) of the tapered channel in the second zone is defined by the following equations:

w(x)=F₂/x

F₂=v_xw_x/{dot over (ε

)}

wherein x is distance along the tapered channel, F₂ is a constant strain rate taper coefficient, v_x is fluid velocity at distance x, w_x is channel width at distance x, and ε

_x is strain rate at distance x.

18. A device for stretching at least one polymer in a fluid sample, said device comprising:

an elongation structure, wherein said elongation structure comprises a tapered channel, said tapered channel having a width w(x) which decreases from a first end to a second end, the tapered channel comprising;

a first zone having a first shape;

a second zone having a second shape, wherein the second shape is different than the first shape; and

a transition which separates the first zone from the second zone;

wherein the width w(x) of the tapered channel in the first zone is defined by the following equations;

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the elongation structure is formed on a chip.

20. The device of claim 18, further comprising a delivery region for delivering said at least one polymer in said fluid sample to said elongation structure.

21. The device of claim 20, wherein said delivery region comprises a sample loading port and a delivery channel, said delivery channel leading into the elongation structure.

22. The device of claim 21, further comprising at least one buffer channel leading into the elongation structure.

23. The device of claim 22, wherein the at least one buffer channel includes two opposing buffer channels leading into the elongation structure.