Pre-term birth (PTB) is the most common complication in pregnancy, affecting millions of pregnancies worldwide each year. Recently, several serum peptide biomarkers for PTB were identified, which when combined with known protein PTB biomarkers, offer &gt;80% sensitivity and specificity in predicting a PTB up to four weeks prior to contractions [1]. Our research focuses on creating integrated microchip devices that will allow rapid determination of these nine PTB biomarkers to facilitate more rapid and effective treatment. We are using capillary electrophoresis to determine the electrophoretic mobilities of native and fluorescently labeled PTB biomarkers, to optimize conditions for separation via microchip electrophoresis. We are transferring these separation protocols to microdevices for rapid analysis of PTB biomarkers. Furthermore, we are combining on-chip sample preparation capabilities, including affinity extraction, preconcentration and fluorescent labeling, with microchip electrophoresis to provide rapid and complete PTB biomarker analysis in a compact microfluidic system. Our integrated microdevices have excellent potential for application in analyzing small-volume samples for biomarkers related to diseases. We are grateful to the United States National Institutes of Health (R01 EB006124) for financial support of these studies. References [1] Esplin, S.; Merrell, K.; Goldenberg, R.; Lai, Y. L.; Iams, J. D.; Mercer, B.; Spong, C. Y.; Miodovnik, M.; Simhan, H. N.; van Dorsten, P.; Dombrowski, M. Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 204, 391.e1-8 (2011).

Capillary and microchip electrophoresis of pre-term birth biomarkers

251st National Meeting (2016)

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