A method of manipulating and/or investigating cellular bodies (9) is provided. The method comprises the steps of: providing a sample holder (3) comprising a holding space (5) for holding a fluid medium (11); providing a sample (7) comprising one or more cellular bodies (9) in a fluid medium (11) in the holding space (5); generating an acoustic wave in the holding space exerting a force (F) on the sample (7) in the holding space (5). The method further comprises providing the holding space (5) with a functionalised wall surface portion (17) to be contacted by the sample (7) and the sample (7) is in contact with the functionalised wall surface portion (17) during at least part of the step of application of the acoustic wave. A system and a sample holder (3) are also provided.

Methods of determining an ideal gain for a detector in a light detection system of a flow cytometer are provided. Methods of interest include irradiating a flow stream with light from a light source, incrementally increasing the gain of the detector such that the detector collects light from the flow stream at each of a plurality of successively increasing gains, obtaining a baseline noise level from the detector at each gain in the plurality of successively increasing gains, calculating a limit of detection (LoD) for each gain in the plurality of successively increasing gains, and assessing the calculated LoDs to determine the ideal gain. Systems and computer readable storage media for practicing the invention are also provided.

A method for determining a characteristic of particles in a fluid sample and/or a contamination characteristic of the fluid sample includes: (a) depositing a metallic film on a surface of a substrate; (b) bringing the fluid sample into contact with the metallic surface; (c) removing the fluid sample from the metallic surface; (d) depositing a layer of metal on the metallic surface and the particles which remained on the metallic surface; (e) illuminating the layers of metal on the particles and metallic surface with electromagnetic rays; or illuminating the layers of metal with electromagnetic rays; (f) receiving the scattered electromagnetic rays at an array of photodiodes; or receiving the reflected electromagnetic rays at an array of photodiodes; (g) forming an image which includes pixels; and (h) processing the formed image to determine a characteristic of the particles and/or a contamination characteristic of the fluid sample.

One aspect of this disclosure relates to a computer-implemented method for determining a force acting on at least part of a structure, for example a biological structure, such as a DNA molecule. The method comprises controlling a light-sensitive system, e.g. of a microscope, to determine light information based on light from the structure. The light is incident on at least a part of the light sensitive system. The light-sensitive system may be said to capture the light from the structure. The at least part of the structure comprises one or more optically active entities, such as DNA intercalator molecules and donor/acceptor fluorophores. At least one of (i) an optical activity of the entities and (ii) a quantity of the entities depends on the force acting on the at least part of the structure. Furthermore, the light information defines a light property value associated with said at least part of the structure. The method further comprises determining the force acting on the at least part of the structure on the basis of said light property value and a reference light property value.

A nanotweezer and method of trapping and dynamic manipulation thereby are provided. The nanotweezer comprises a first metastructure including a first substrate, a first electrode, and a plurality of plasmonic nanostructures arranged in an array, and a trapping region laterally displaced from the array; a second metastructure including a second substrate and a second electrode; a microfluidic channel between the first metastructure and the second metastructure; a voltage source configured to selectively apply an electric field between the first electrode and the second electrode; and a light source configured to selectively apply an excitation light to the microfluidic channel at a first location corresponding to the array, thereby to trap a nanoparticle at a second location corresponding to the trapping region.

Aspects of the present disclosure include methods for modulating an intensity profile of a laser beam. Methods according to certain embodiments include irradiating an acousto-optic device with a laser to generate an output laser beam having a plurality of angularly deflected laser beams, capturing an image of the output laser beam, determining an intensity profile of the output laser beam along a horizontal axis from the captured image and adjusting one or more parameters of a waveform inputted into the acousto-optic device in response to the determined intensity profile to generate an output laser beam having a modulated intensity profile. Systems having a laser, an acousto-optic device, an imaging sensor and a waveform generator as well as non-transitory computer readable storage medium with instructions for practicing the subject methods are also described.

A target substance detection method includes forming a complex by causing a target substance and a dielectric particle to bind to each other, the dielectric particle being modified with a substance (for example, an antibody) having a property of specifically binding to the target substance; subjecting a bound particle and an unbound particle to dielectrophoresis in a liquid, the bound particle being the dielectric particle constituting the complex, the unbound particle being a dielectric particle not constituting the complex; and detecting the target substance in the complex, based on a difference in motion between the bound particle and the unbound particle caused by the dielectrophoresis.

Apparatus and methods for sample acquisition, including for example, samples for flow cytometry systems. Certain embodiments include a plurality of plates, valves, and conduits. In particular embodiments, the plates are stacked and the conduits extend through stack of plates, and in specific embodiments each valve is in fluid communication with a conduit.

A cell sorting system that automatically generates a sorting strategy based on examples of target events provided by an operator. The target events can be selected using measurements ranging from traditional flow cytometry measurements to derived measurements that are computationally expensive to complex measurements such as images.

The present disclosure relates to a method for measuring the cell concentration in a sample, comprising the following steps: (1) measuring the concentrations of cells in standard samples each having a known concentration using a flow cytometer; (2) preparing a calibration curve based on the values measured in step (1) and the known concentrations; (3) measuring the concentration of cells in a sample having an unknown concentration using a flow cytometer; and (4) determining the concentration of cells from the value measured in step (3) based on the calibration curve prepared in step (2).