Patent ID: 8778637

Claim:
A method of performing thermal melt analysis of a nucleic acid in a microfluidic device, the method comprising: (a) providing a microfluidic device having at least one microfluidic channel; (b) introducing fluid comprising the nucleic acid and reagents into the at least one microfluidic channel; (c) continuously flowing the fluid through the at least one microfluidic channel; (d) uniformly heating the fluid, while simultaneously continuously flowing the fluid through the at least one microfluidic channel of the microfluidic device, by applying heat at a temperature along at least a predetermined region of said microfluidic channel such that the fluid in the predetermined region has a uniform temperature, and then increasing the temperature such that the temperature of the fluid in the predetermined region is increased in a continuous and uniform manner; and (e) measuring, while simultaneously heating and continuously flowing the fluid through the at least one microfluidic channel of the microfluidic device, a detectable property emanating from the fluid as a function of the uniformly and continuously increased temperature, the measurements being performed at a single location along a length of the predetermined region, wherein the detectable property indicates an extent of denaturation of the nucleic acid, and wherein measuring the detectable property results in data for use in performance of the thermal melt analysis.