Disclosed herein is a preprocessing apparatus that makes it possible to highly efficiently analyze specimens held by solid media, such as dried blood spots to be used for newborn mass screening or the like. The preprocessing apparatus includes: a preprocessing container setting part in which a preprocessing container containing a solid sample including a specimen to be analyzed and a solid medium holding the specimen is to be set; a carrying mechanism that carries the preprocessing container set in the preprocessing container setting part; and a preprocessing part that has a port for setting the preprocessing container carried by the carrying mechanism and that is configured to perform preprocessing including extraction processing for extracting the specimen from the solid sample contained in the preprocessing container set in the port.

A sperm sorting apparatus and a sperm sorting method are provided. The sperm sorting apparatus includes a medium chamber, a waste chamber and a sorting channel communicated with and extending along a first direction in between. The medium chamber is configured to contain a medium solution. The waste chamber disposed aside the medium chamber is configured to contain a residual solution after sorting. The residual solution includes low motility sperms and/or dead sperms. The sorting channel is configured to be inserted with a sperm sample, such that sperms in the sperm sample are sorted in corresponding to a medium solution flow from the medium chamber. The sorting channel has first and second portions. The first portion is closer to the medium chamber than the second portion. A width of the first portion measured along a second direction is greater than a critical dimension, ranging from 200 μm to 400 μm.

A manually actuated chromatography device comprising a chamber for receiving a liquid sample, a pump with a metering valve, and a chromatography element, wherein the pump moves a predetermined volume of liquid from the sample chamber to the chromatography element.

A device including an ion-selective membrane arranged within an optical path of the device and coupled to a sample cell to interact with a fluid sample and thereby modify an optical response of the ion-selective membrane according to an ion concentration in the fluid sample, is provided. The device also includes an integrated computational element (ICE) arranged within the optical path, so that the illumination light optically interacts with the ICE and with the ion-selective membrane to provide a modified light that has a property indicative of the ion concentration in the fluid sample. A detector that receives the modified light provides an electrical signal proportional to the property of the modified light. A method and a system for using the above device are also provided.

The invention relates to a method for preparation of a sample (10) of a formulation (11) for subsequent endotoxin determination, the formulation (11) suspected of comprising an endotoxin, the formulation (11) preferentially being a pharmaceutical formulation. The method comprises the following steps: application of the sample (10) to an endotoxin-free centrifugation column (2) containing a size exclusion chromatography matrix (5) that has been equilibrated with a suitable equilibration buffer (6) and elution of a flow through (15) of the sample by centrifugation, which flow through (15) can then be used for endotoxin determination. The equilibration buffer (6) is selected according to a subsequently used method of endotoxin determination, the equilibration buffer (6) only containing components not interfering with subsequently used method of endotoxin determination. Furthermore, the invention relates to a kit (20) for preparation of a sample (10).

A water purification system is disclosed which, includes a reverse osmosis (RO) system or component that is connectable to a city or other outside water feed that is capable of responding to and compensating for low or no feed water pressure coming into the RO system to ensure the outgoing supply of purified water is provided consistently and at a minimum water pressure. This can be accomplished without the need for communication with another device or system-wide facility, such as a hospital, or a pharmaceutical or semiconductor manufacturing system, requiring a constant water supply.

A biological fluid sampling device for collecting a blood sample from a separate vascular access device and for ejecting a portion of the collected sample to a point-of-care testing device for analysis is provided. The biological fluid sampling device includes a body enclosing a reservoir. The reservoir has an internal volume sufficient to contain enough blood for use in a diagnostic test. The sampling device further includes: an access lumen extending from a distal end of the body for establishing fluid communication between a separate vascular access device and the reservoir; an outflow lumen also in fluid communication with the reservoir; and a removable vented cap attached to the outflow lumen including a gas permeable vent in gaseous communication between the reservoir and ambient air. In addition, several sample and transfer devices are provided for obtaining a sample from a subject and transferring the sample to a point-of-care testing device.

A lab-on-a-chip cartridge includes a housing defining four separate chambers. A fluid (such as whole blood) flows through one of the chambers and into another one of the chambers, which includes a filter membrane. The filter membrane is rotated to separate a first fluid component (such as plasma) from a second fluid component (such as red blood cells), with the first fluid component passing through the filter membrane and the second fluid component not passing through the filter membrane. The separated first and second fluid components each flow into a different one of the remaining chambers, with the first fluid component contacting a lab-on-a-chip device for analyzing the first fluid component.

A method and system for testing a liquid sample for an organic compound is disclosed, the method including the steps of collecting the liquid sample from a liquid source; transmitting light having a wavelength of between about 190 nanometers and about 310 nanometers into the liquid sample; measuring absorption/transmission of the light by the organic compound in the liquid sample; and determining a concentration of the organic compound within the liquid sample based on the absorption/transmission of the light by the organic compound. The system can include a spectrophotometer for measuring the absorption of UV light by the organic compound, an ion exchange column for removing ion contaminants from the liquid sample, and a vacuum degasser unit for removing gases and other impurities from the liquid sample.

The subject of the invention is a membrane for separation of target stem cells from biological samples, more precisely from a single-cell suspension that was prepared from a biological sample. As a result, sterile target stem cells are obtained in physiological buffer. The membrane of the invention consists of a 3D carrier structure made of at least one layer of biocompatible polymer with specific pore size, as a carrier material, and covalently bound target molecules on its surface and/or in the pores. These target molecules are preferably target antibodies, which recognize characteristic antigens that are bound on the surface of the target stem cells and thus bind the target stem cells to the membrane. Target molecules can be either directly bound to the surface and/or in the pores of the carrier structure or are bound to the surface and/or in the pores of the carrier structure through specific functionalized nanoparticles, which are bound to or embedded into the 3D carrier structure of the membrane. In addition, the present invention includes the membrane production process as well as the process and device for the separation of target stem cells from a biological sample, which includes the above membrane as a constituent part.