Patent ID: 7670770

Claim:
A method of isolating, imaging, and analyzing, in parallel, two or more individual nucleic acid biopolymers, comprising the steps of: providing a nanofluidic chip, comprising: a) nanochannel array, comprising: a surface having a plurality of parallel nanochannels running along the material of the surface, said nanochannels having a trench width of less than about 150 nanometers and a trench depth of less than 200 nanometers; at least one of the plurality of nanochannels being surmounted by sealing material to render such nanochannels at least substantially enclosed; at least two of the nanochannels capable of admitting a fluid; b) at least one sample reservoir in fluid communication with at least two of the nanochannels, said sample reservoir capable of releasing a fluid containing at least two nucleic acid biopolymer; providing the at least one sample reservoir with at least one fluid, said fluid comprising at least two nucleic acid biopolymers; transporting the at least two nucleic acid biopolymers into the at least two nanochannels to elongate said at least two nucleic acid biopolymers, the at least two nucleic acid biopolymers being individually confined within the at least two nanochannels such that the at least two nucleic acid biopolymer are transported through the at least two nanochannels in an unfolded fashion; imaging in parallel at least one signal transmitted from the at least two elongated and isolated nucleic acid biopolymers within the nanochannels; and correlating the signal to at least one property of the at least two nucleic acid biopolymers to thereby analyze the two or more individual nucleic acid biopolymers.