INTEGRATED NANO-VOLUME AUTOMATED GENOMIC WORKSTATION

虽然30亿碱基对的人类基因组的完整测序预计只需要几年时间，但它的成本是昂贵的。 为了显着降低大规模DNA测序的成本和时间，减少昂贵试剂的使用和样本处理劳动力的数量非常重要。 我们建议将DNA测序所需的样品大小从常规所需的大小（从5-10微升到50-100纳升）减少大约两个数量级。 这将通过在纳米移液器系统内进行DNA样品的所有混合和反应来实现。将纳米移液器概念集成到修改后的先前开发的自动化工作站原型中，将允许将非常小规模的样品自动测序快速纳入生产操作中。

Although the complete sequencing of the 3 billion base-pair human genome is expected to be only a few years away, it is coming at a cost premium. In order to significantly reduce the cost and time of large-scale DNA sequencing it is important to reduce the usage of expensive reagent and the amount of sample handling labor. We propose to reduce the size of samples required for DNA sequencing by approximately two orders of magnitude from what is conventionally required (from 5-10 microliters to 50-100 nanoliters). This will be accomplished by performing all mixing and reactions of DNA samples within a nano-pipetter system. Integrating the nano-pipetter concept into a modified, previously developed automated workstation prototype will allow the rapid incorporation of very small scale sample automated sequencing into production operations.