Ultrasonic manipulation and transport of DNA molecules in evanescent light fields

Ultrasonic Standing Waves (USWs) can be used to manipulate particles within a fluid. Used within chambers of a half wavelength depth or less, the ultrasonic radiation forces can move the particles either to a central plane within the chamber or to a wall of the chamber. This project is a multidisciplinary investigation into the use of USWs in microfluidic biosensing applications. It involves the School of Engineering Sciences (SES), the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) and the Microelectronics Research Centre in the Department of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton. The work aims to integrate optical sensing and USW excitation using techniques and materials compatible with emerging microfluidic technology. It will also use the optical/USW techniques to study and quantify the behaviour of the USW chamber, particularly with regard to the ability of quarter wavelength chambers to move particles to the chamber wall. The project will apply these techniques to the detection of a number of DNA sequences in a mixture. It will also investigate the feasibility of using acoustic radiation forces to interrogate single DNA sequences with a high resolution.