Electrophoresis-based Nucleic Acids Detection and its Application to the Development of Low-Cost, Point of Care Systems
DNA. Electrophoresis gel. Molecular spectroscopy. Chemical dyes. IoT.
This work presents a review of the electrophoresis-based nucleic acids detection, as well as the standard instrumentation, techniques, and chemical dyes used. We aim to establish a substantial theoretical foundation to develop a low-cost smart DNA detection system capable of obtaining through image processing, quantitative data from electrophoresis gel analysis using easily accessible techniques with potential for rapid and in point of care diagnosis of samples, for application in several fields, like healthcare, agriculture, and aquaculture. The proposed device will encompass a wide range of the color spectrum in order to detect the various stains kits used commercially. Data analysis at the point of care will be processed in a smartphone application using cloud-based analysis, documentation, and storage of images of DNA and protein gels. The software will automatically be able to detect the bands, fragment size, and molecular weight.