A microfluidic cartridge to prepare spores for PCR analysis

A prototype cartridge system is described that rapidly disrupts Bacillus spores by sonication, adds PCR reagent to the disrupted spores. and dispenses the mixture into a PCR tube. The total time to automatically process the spores in the cartridge and then detect the spore DNA by real-time PCR was 20 min. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.