Microfluidic Integration of Parallel Liquid Chromatography

Here we report the development of a fully integrated microfluidic chromatography system: A novel column geometry solves a long-standing problem in on-chip separations. This geometry facilitates the rapid and high yield stacking of multiple bead columns in poly(dimethylsiloxane) PDMS microfluidic devices using low pressure flow. Microcolumns are integrated with on-chip plumbing to enable fully automated sample loading, programmable gradient generation, gradient storage, separation, and fluorescent detection. We demonstrate this system in the high resolution separation of fluorescently labelled DNA using a strong anion exchange (SAX) resin.