Cell lysis is a commonly used protocol in synthetic biology. It can be performed through a variety of different methods, however we had focused on chemical cellular lysis. Cell Lysis is used to extract and isolate DNA from a specific type of cell. This is an extremely important step in building genetic circuits in order to utilize specific coding regions in a cell's DNA. Chemical cell lysis involves introducing cells to a series of buffers in order to degrade the cell’s outer membrane and collect the DNA that is released.

This microfluidic chip is designed to perform chemical cell lysis. Suspended cells and an lysing buffer would be mixed inside the cell. This mixture of buffer and cells would be then mixed with a neutralization buffer to prevent DNA degradation. The mixture would then move to the diamond chamber where the DNA binds magnetic particles. Lastly, an elution buffer would be input and to clean and release the DNA from the magnetic particles.