The analysis of DNA at the single molecule level is crucial for many different fields in biology and medicine. It can serve to study the heterogeneity in a given population of microorganisms, to look for mutations in viruses, or to analyse tumor cells. But most of the methods available now-a-days are based on the simultaneous average of the signal from several molecules, so the information from the individual organisms is lost. In our group, we have developed a technique to analyse single molecules of DNA and obtain their genomic structural information in real time. To push the methodology even further, we need to extract the DNA from the micro-organisms or cells directly on-chip. This would avoid pipetting, molecular damage (especially critical for long, Megabasepair molecules) and loss of material. Furthermore, it would allow us to select the cell or organism that we want to investigate. Plasmonic structures can be used to create hot spots and lyse and/or analyse different bio-entities.

For this, in this project, we propose to use a versatile, high power white laser source, combined with plasmonics, to selectively lyse viruses, bacteria and cells on-chip. With this, it could be possible to select the entity, lyse it, and guide the genomic material for analysis in the same fluidic device.