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.

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and techniques for optical detection of analytes (e.g., biomarkers or other objects) using a liquid-core waveguide in which the analytes are suspended in a high-index liquid inside a liquid channel of the waveguide. The term “high-index” may indicate a refractive core index of the carrier liquid that is higher than or equal to that of one or more surrounding cladding layer(s) (e.g., ethylene glycol liquid inside a glass channel). In some embodiments, a method includes illuminating, by a light-source, one or more particles in a liquid-core waveguide, wherein the liquid-core waveguide comprises a first cladding layer having a first index of a refraction, and a hollow core comprising a liquid inside the hollow core, wherein the liquid has a second index of refraction higher than the first index of refraction; and detecting, by a detector, light emitted from the one or more particles.

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.

The present disclosure is directed to a method of disturbance correction and to a laser scanning microscope carrying out this method. Specifically, it is directed to an image recording method according to the MINFLUX principle, in which a spatially isolated fluorescence dye molecule is illuminated at a sequence of scan positions by an intensity distribution with a local intensity minimum, and the number of fluorescence photons emitted by the fluorescence dye molecule is detected at each of the scan positions. The location of the molecule is determined with a high spatial resolution from the scan positions and the numbers of fluorescence photons. A disturbance is captured when illuminating the fluorescence dye molecule and detecting the fluorescence light, said disturbance being considered in corrective fashion when determining the location of the fluorescence dye molecule.

A nucleic acid sequence measuring apparatus (1) measures a target (TG) having a specific nucleic acid sequence included in a sample. The nucleic acid sequence measuring apparatus (1) includes a detector (12) configured to detect fluorescence emitted from a nucleic acid sequence measuring device (DV) which emits fluorescence due to an addition of the target (TG), and a calculator (25) configured to measure the target based on a difference between a first amount of light indicating an amount of fluorescent light emitted from a predefined measurement region of the nucleic acid sequence measuring device (DV) at a first time point before or immediately after an addition of the sample to the nucleic acid sequence measuring device (DV) and a second amount of light indicating an amount of fluorescent light emitted from the measurement region at a second time point after a predefined time has elapsed from the addition of the sample to the nucleic acid sequence measuring device (DV), based on a detection result of the detector (12).

A microfluidic reaction chamber with a reaction chamber circuit includes a microfluidic reaction chamber to contain a reaction fluid for amplification of nucleic acids, and a reaction chamber circuit disposed within the microfluidic reaction chamber. The microfluidic reaction chamber includes a base wall, a top wall parallel to the base wall and defined in part by a transparent lid, a first side wall, and a second side wall. The reaction chamber circuit is disposed within the microfluidic reaction chamber, and includes a top surface, a bottom surface, a first side wall, and a second side wall. The reaction chamber circuit is in fluidic contact with the reaction fluid and includes a photodetector to detect a fluorescence signal from a labeled fluorescent tag in the reaction fluid.