Systems and methods related to optical nanosensors comprising photoluminescent nanostructures are generally described.

A method for optical detection of residual soil on articles (such as medical instruments and equipment), after completion of a washing or a rinsing operation by a washer. A soil detection system provides an indication of soil on the articles by detecting luminescent radiation emanating from the soil in the presence of ambient light.

A method for evaluating a biological material for unassociated virus-like particles virus size having a particular epitope uses a fluorescent antibody stain specific for binding with the epitope and a fluid sample with the virus-size particles and fluorescent antibody stain is subjected to flow cytometry with identification of fluorescent emission detection events indicative of passage through a flow cell of a flow cytometer of unassociated labeled particles of virus size including such a virus-like particle and fluorescent antibody stain.

A sample observation device includes: an emission optical system that emits planar light to a sample on an XZ plane; a scanning unit that scans the sample in a Y-axis direction so as to pass through an emission surface of the planar light; an imaging optical system that has an observation axis inclined with respect to the emission surface and forms an image of observation light generated in the sample; an image acquisition unit that acquires a plurality of pieces of XZ image data corresponding to an optical image of the observation light; and an image generation unit 8 that generates XY image data based on the plurality of pieces of XZ image data. The image generation unit extracts an analysis region of the plurality of pieces of XZ image data acquired in the Y-axis direction, integrates brightness values of at least the analysis region in a Z-axis direction to generate X image data, and combines the X image data in the Y-axis direction to generate the XY image data.

The present invention relates to methods and systems for the analysis of nucleic acids present in biological samples, and more specifically, relates to clustering melt curves derived from high resolution thermal melt analysis performed on a sample of nucleic acids, the resulting clusters being usable, in one embodiment, for analyzing the sequences of nucleic acids and to classify their genotypes that are useful for determining the identity of the genotype of a nucleic acid that is present in a biological sample.

A sample analyzer with an optical detection device and a sample analysis method of the sample analyzer are disclosed. The optical detection device includes a fluid chamber, a light source and a light detector. The fluid chamber includes an illumination zone. An analyte flows through the illumination zone so as to form a sample stream. The light source illuminates the illumination zone to excite cell articles, reacted with a reagent, of the sample stream to emit a light signal. The light detector detects the fluorescent lights and transforms it into an electric signal. The light detector can include a silicon photomultiplier.

A Western Blot assay is performed by performing a probing process on a membrane containing target proteins, by contacting the membrane with a fluorescent resonant energy transfer (FRET) solution and allowing the probing process to proceed for a probing time period. The probing process results in a target protein becoming labeled with both a donor chromophore and an acceptor chromophore, which are effective as a donor-acceptor pair for FRET when so linked to the target protein. While performing the probing process, the labeled target proteins are measured by irradiating the membrane with an excitation light to excite the donor chromophores, wherein in each labeled target protein, the excited donor chromophore transfers energy to the acceptor chromophore by FRET and, in response, the labeled target protein emits an emission light. The intensity of the emission light is then measured. The light measured may be light emitted from the donor chromophore and/or light emitted from the acceptor chromophore.

The invention provides systems and methods for rapid automated identification of microbes and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) directly from a patient specimen, without specimen preparation. Specimens are loaded into an analytical cartridge for processing. Analytical cartridges are preloaded with species-specific labels that are used to identify and enumerate microbes in the specimen. Instruments, such as analyzers can be used to interact with analytical cartridges to carry out methods of the invention all within the cartridge.

A system for electronically and optically monitoring biological samples, the system including: a multi-well plate having a plurality of wells configured to receive a plurality of biological samples, each of the wells having a set of electrodes and a transparent window on a bottom surface of the well that is free of electrodes; an illumination module configured to illuminate the wells; a cradle configured to receive the multi-well plate, the cradle having an opening on the bottom that exposes the transparent windows of the wells; and an optical imaging module movable across different wells of a same multi-well plate to capture images through the windows.

Provided is a method for sensing methyl salicylate, which is a plant hormone released when a plant is infected with a disease in cultivation of plants including agricultural crops, and thereby provided a method for early in-situ detection of disease infection in a plant. With the present embodiment, disease infection in a plant can be detected at an early stage by utilizing a rare earth compound that selectively recognizes and forms a complex with methyl salicylate, which is a plant hormone released when a plant is infected by a pathogen, as a receptor for sensing, and by utilizing a fluorescence emission phenomenon and a change in electrochemical behavior after the reaction with methyl salicylate.