Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science, 2017, 7, 362-392 http://www.scirp.org/journal/aces ISSN Online: 2160-0406 ISSN Print: 2160-0392 DOI: 10.4236/aces.2017.74027 Aug. 31, 2017 362 Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science Computational Studies of DNA Separations in Micro-Fabricated Devices: Review of General Approaches and Recent Applications Saman Monjezi, Behrouz Behdani, Meyyammai B. Palaniappan, James D. Jones, Joontaek Park * Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, USA Abstract DNA separation techniques have drawn attention because of their uses in ap- plications such as gene analysis and manipulation. There have been many stu- dies utilizing micro-fabricated devices for faster and more efficient separa- tions than traditional methods using gel electrophoresis. Although many ex- perimental studies have presented various new devices and methods, compu- tational studies have played a pivotal role in this development by identifying separation mechanisms and by finding optimal designs for efficient separation conditions. The simulation of DNA separation methods in micro-fabricated devices requires the correct capture of the dynamics and the structure of a single polymer molecule that is being affected by an applied flow field or an electric field in complex geometries. In this work, we summarize the polymer models (the bead-spring model, the bead-rod model, the slender-body model, and the touching-bead model) and the methods, focusing on Brownian dy- namics simulation, used to calculate inhomogeneous fields taking into con- sideration complex boundaries (the finite element method, the boundary ele- ment method, the lattice-Boltzmann method, and the dissipative particle dy- namics simulation). The worm-like chain model (adapted from the bead-spring model) combined with the finite element method has been most commonly used but other models have shown more efficient and accurate results. We al- so review the applications of these simulation approaches in various separa- tion methods and devices: gel electrophoresis, post arrays, capillary electro- phoresis, microchannel flows, entropic traps, nanopores, and rotational flows. As more complicated geometries are involved in new devices, more rigorous models (such as incorporating the hydrodynamic interactions of DNA with solid boundaries) that can correctly capture the dynamic behaviors of DNA in such devices are needed. How to cite this paper: Monjezi, S., Beh- dani, B., Palaniappan, M.B., Jones, J.D. and Park, J. (2017) Computational Studies of DNA Separations in Micro-Fabricated De- vices: Review of General Approaches and Recent Applications. Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science, 7, 362-392. https://doi.org/10.4236/aces.2017.74027 Received: July 24, 2017 Accepted: August 28, 2017 Published: August 31, 2017 Copyright © 2017 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access