Fig. 5

Preparation of the PCR cassette (width 31.4 mm, length 38.6 mm, and height 3.1 mm): (a-d) capillary preparation and (e-j) cassette preparation (only one trench of the cassette is shown for the simplicity): (a) empty glass capillary (length 6 mm, diameter 1.6 mm), (b) capillary is filled with the gel/PCR reaction mix, (c) capillary is exposed to UV to polymerize the gel and (d) polymerized gel is desiccated inside the capillary, (e) empty trench (length 30.5 mm, width 1.8 mm, depth 2.4 mm), (f) 40 μL of molten wax is poured and allowed to solidify, (g) capillary with the desiccated gel is placed on the wax in the trench (total of 5 capillaries were placed per trench, capillaries touch each other), (h) sample is pipetted by administering it to the last capillary in the trench and letting all five capillaries fill by capillary forces, (i) the desiccated gel is hydrated by the sample, and (j) at the start of the PCR, wax melts causing the capillary to sink to the bottom of the trench and segregating each capillary as an individual reaction vessel.