Michael is developing one-step assembly of genes from microarray oligonucleotides. Currently, to assemble these oligos, the Center for NanoTechnology uses a muitistep process of cleaving oligos from the chip surface, amplifying them with PCR, assembling and then filtering the products for errors. Michael aims to use
a combination of microfluidics, macrofluidics and unique biology
to automate the process. He has developed a PCR protocol that would directly make copies of the chip-bound
oligos that has removed the need to cleave, dry down and resuspend oligos. His next project aims to capitalize on PCR already being done
on-chip and apply it to assembling the copied oligos.
In addition to gene assembly, Michael has been involved in the design and
construction of custom DNA synthesis machines and has begun work on
applying pyrosequencing (a one-step sequencing process) to the analysis of microarray oligo
quality. |
