Patent ID: 9718676
Date: 2017-08-01
CPC Classifications: B81C,G01N,Y10T

Claim:
1. An integrated system for analysis of proteins and mixtures of proteins, wherein said system is contained on a single, monolithic microchip, said system comprising: (a) an input adapted to receive a sample and to deliver it to a solid-phase protein extractor; (b) a solid-phase protein extractor adapted to extract and concentrate proteins from the sample, and to output the extracted proteins to a first separation channel; (c) a first separation channel having a diameter less than about 100 μm, whose surface is adapted to separate the proteins by a first characteristic, wherein said first separation channel is adapted to output the separated proteins to a second separation channel; (d) a second separation channel having a diameter less than about 100 μm, whose surface is adapted to separate the proteins by a second characteristic, wherein said second separation channel is adapted to output the separated proteins to a solid-phase enzymatic reactor; wherein the first and second separation characteristics are substantially different; (e) a flow-through, solid-phase enzymatic reactor whose surface comprises one or more covalently-bound enzymes adapted to at least partially digest the separated proteins, and to output the digested proteins to a peptide separator; and (f) a peptide separator adapted to separate the peptide protein digest products by a third characteristic, wherein the third characteristic may be the same as the first or second characteristic, or different from both; and wherein said peptide separator is adapted to output the separated peptides to a detector; wherein: (g) each of said solid-phase extractor, said enzymatic reactor, said first separation channel, and said second separation channel comprises an array of nanopillars having diameters between about 60 nm and about 500 nm, and aspect ratios and wherein: (h) each said array of nanopillars is prepared by a process comprising the steps of: