Development of miniaturized in situ analysis devices for biological and chemical oceanography

Various miniaturized and integrated in situ devices for biological and chemical oceanography have been developed in our research group. The devices targeted to analyze microbial gene, heavy metal ion (manganese: M/sup 2+/) concentration and pH of seawater are evaluated and presented here. Flow-through PCR polymerase chain reaction) can be performed with the microbial gene analysis device with integrated heating and pumping system. Mn/sup 2+/ ion concentration is quantified by applying chemiluminescence reaction by the heavy metal ion analysis device. Micropumps are integrated to develop well-integrated pH measurement device. All devices are based on PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) microchannel chip fabricated with conventional molding method.