Analytical isotachophoresis of lactate in human serum using dry film photoresist microfluidic chips compatible with a commercially available field-deployable instrument platform.

A dry film resist (DFR) chip compatible with the Agilent Bioanalyzer 2100 was designed and fabricated for use in the analysis of lactate in serum by chip isotachophoresis (ITP). The Agilent Bioanalyzer 2100 is a commercially available field deployable analytical instrument originally developed for the electrophoretic analysis of DNA, RNA and proteins. The DFR chip was designed for the ITP separation of lactate in human serum within 1 min and was made compatible with the Bioanalyzer after packaging in the plastic caddies normally used for the DNA chips. A 20-fold improvement in sensitivity was obtained for the DFR chips in comparison with the standard chips used in earlier work. The limit of detection and limit of quantification for lactate were 24 μM and 80 μM, respectively. This new approach enables the use of commercial platforms like the Agilent Bioanalyzer for new applications including the analysis of small molecules.