Integrated Sample Cleanup and Microchip Capillary Array Electrophoresis for High-Performance Forensic STR Profiling

Microfluidics has the potential to significantly improve the speed, throughput, and cost performance of electrophoretic short tandem repeat (STR) analysis by translating the process into a miniaturized and integrated format. Current STR analysis bypasses the post-PCR sample cleanup step in order to save time and cost, resulting in poor injection efficiency, bias against larger loci, and delicate injection timing controls. Here we describe the operation of an integrated high-throughput sample cleanup and capillary array electrophoresis microsystem that employs a streptavidin capture gel chemistry coupled to a simple direct-injection geometry for simultaneously analyzing 12 STR samples in less than 30 min with >10-fold improved sensitivity.