INT results from 4/3/13
I brought some 20nm and 40nm Sepcons to Integrated NanoTechnologies last Wednesday.
First, we passed some short radio-labeled DNA strands through a 40 nm Sepcon, and then some longer strands. Both were able to pass through the membrane with a transmission rate of ~70% (as measured by scintillation), and the length of the strand did not seem to affect the amount that passed (which is what we wanted to show).
Next, we wanted to show that 40 nm Sepcons retained bacillus bacteria and that 20nm Sepcons retained dengue viruses.
INT performed PCR on the bacterial filtrates, and got amplification products – this is likely because the bacteria were lysed in the column and DNA passed through the pores, since clearly bacteria can’t fit through 40 nm pores. They intend to verify that it was only free DNA by doing the same separation and trying to culture bacteria from the filtrate.
An RT-PCR on the dengue virus filtrate turned up nothing, which is good.
Were the flow rates workable for their application? What are their concerns?
Thanks!
Rick expressed concern that the flow rates were so low. I told him we were working on a new generation of Sepcon with 4x active area and he thought that those would be fast enough.