US Patent 7972819 - Disrupting cells and amplifying nucleic acids using gold nanorods

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7972819.html

This patent from Samsung teaches how gold nanorods can be used in place of magnetic beads to improve cell lysis to obtain and amplify DNA. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of continuously disrupting cells and amplifying nucleic acids in a single microchamber comprising:

introducing a solution containing cells and unmodified gold nanorods into a microchamber;

irradiating a laser onto the gold nanorods to disrupt the cells; and

amplifying a nucleic acid from the disrupted cells in the microchamber.