Issue 11, 2010
From the journal:

Lab on a Chip

FRET for lab-on-a-chip devices — current trends and future prospects

Smitha S. Varghese,ab   Yonggang Zhu,*ab   Timothy J. Davisab  and  Stephen C. Trowell*bc  

* Corresponding authors

a CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, PO Box 56, Highett, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

b CSIRO Food Futures Flagship, 5 Julius Avenue, North Ryde, NSW, Australia

c CSIRO Entomology, GPO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Abstract

This review focuses on the use of Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) to monitor intra- and intermolecular reactions occurring in microfluidic reactors. Microfluidic devices have recently been used for performing highly efficient and miniaturised biological assays for the analysis of biological entities such as cells, proteins and nucleic acids. Microfluidic assays are characterised by nanolitre to femtolitre reaction volumes, which necessitates the adoption of a sensitive optical detection scheme. FRET serves as a strong ‘spectroscopic ruler’ for elucidating the tertiary structure of biomolecules, as the efficiency of the non-radiative energy transfer is extremely sensitive to nanoscale changes in the separation between donor and acceptor markers attached to the biomolecule of interest. In this review, we will review the implementation of various microfluidic assays which employ FRET for diverse applications in the biomedical field, along with the advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches. The future prospects for development of microfluidic devices incorporating FRET detection will be discussed.

Graphical abstract: FRET for lab-on-a-chip devices — current trends and future prospects

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B924271F
Article type
Critical Review
Submitted
18 Nov 2009
Accepted
29 Jan 2010
First published
16 Mar 2010

Lab Chip, 2010,10, 1355-1364

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FRET for lab-on-a-chip devices — current trends and future prospects

S. S. Varghese, Y. Zhu, T. J. Davis and S. C. Trowell, Lab Chip, 2010, 10, 1355 DOI: 10.1039/B924271F

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