Presented herein are apparatuses for use in capillary separations. An apparatus includes a coupling that integrates a capillary with a voltage source, a sheath liquid system, a fluid exit port, and a manifold. The coupling may be an elbow connector or equivalent. The manifold receives incident light from an incident light input, and emitted light is collected by a collected light output. The capillary enters the manifold at an input for the capillary, traverses the coupling, and terminates at the fluid exit port, for example an electrospray emitter. The capillary may also enter the manifold at an input for the capillary and terminates inside the manifold.

A method for quantifying acetylamantadine in a urine sample comprises eluting acetylamantadine from the urine sample using solid phase extraction and quantifying the acetylamantadine eluted from the urine sample using Raman spectroscopy.

Naphthalene, benzene, toluene, xylene, and other volatile organic compounds VOCs have been identified as serious health hazards. Embodiments of the invention are directed to methods and apparatus for near-real-time in-situ detection and accumulated dose measurement of exposure to naphthalene vapor and other hazardous gaseous VOCs. The methods and apparatus employ excitation of fluorophors native or endogenous to compounds of interest using light sources emitting in the ultraviolet below 300 nm and measurement of native fluorescence emissions in distinct wavebands above the excitation wavelength. The apparatus of some embodiments are cell-phone-sized sensor/dosimeter “badges” to be worn by personnel potentially exposed to hazardous VOCs. The badge sensor of some embodiments provides both real time detection and data logging of exposure to naphthalene or other VOCs of interest from which both instantaneous and accumulated dose can be determined.

Devices and systems are provided in which one or more electrochemical sensors are integrated within a digital microfluidic device. According to one example embodiment, a two-electrode electrochemical sensor is integrated into a top or bottom plate of a digital microfluidic device, where the counter electrode is provided within a defined spatial region, and where the working electrode is formed such that it is spatially distributed within the spatial region associated with the counter electrode. The working electrode may be provided as one or more elongate segments that are spatially distributed within, and/or surround a perimeter of, the counter electrode. The area of the working electrode may be selected to be smaller than that of the counter electrode in order to improve the performance of the electrochemical sensor.

A particle characterization apparatus comprising: a light source for illuminating a sample with a light beam; a detector arranged to detect scattered light from the interaction of the light beam with the sample; and a focus tuneable lens arranged to collect the scattered light for the detector from a scattering volume and/or to direct the light beam into the sample.

Proteins that are electrophoretically separated in a gel are derivatized to produce fluorescent emissions by incorporating halo-substituted organic compounds into one or both of the electrode buffer solutions at the two ends of the gel. The halo-substituted compounds used are ones that bear an electric charge at the pH of the buffer solutions and gel, and the polarity of the charge on the compounds is such that the compounds migrate from the electrode buffer into the gel under the electrophoretic influence concurrently with the migration of the proteins into the gel. Once the proteins are separated and distributed within the gel and the gel is fully penetrated with the halo-substituted compounds, the gel is irradiated with ultraviolet light to induce a reaction between the halo-substituted compounds and the proteins through the tryptophan residues on the proteins, producing fluorescent reaction products.

A separation module operates to fractionate or separate an analyte into fractions according to pI, i.e., pI bands, utilizing capillary isoelectric focusing (“CIEF”) within a first microchannel. The fractions are stacked to form plugs, the number of which is determined by a number of parallel second microchannels integrally connected to the first microchannel, into which the fractions are directed according to the buffer characteristics found in each of the individual microchannels. Within the microchannels the plugs are separated into proteins according to a different chemical property, i.e., “m/z,” utilizing capillary electrophoresis (“CE”).

A capillary unit includes a reservoir capable of retaining a liquid. A capillary having a linear shape has one end secured on a bottom-end portion of the reservoir. The capillary extends from the bottom-end portion in a direction away from an opening of the reservoir. A nozzle connector is provided between a bottom of the reservoir and the one end of the capillary, and provides liquid-tight removable connection with a nozzle for injecting the liquid into the capillary from a portion adjacent to the reservoir.

A method of testing a biological sample comprising deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules for presence of a plurality of alleles is described, wherein DNA fragments obtained using the biological sample and corresponding to different alleles have different fragment sizes. A capillary electrophoresis (CE) instrument is used to obtain test fragment sizing data for the biological sample. A pre-computed model is used to dynamically determine one or more synthetic allelic ladders, where the pre-computed model is derived via analysis of a plurality of fragment sizing data sets obtained from a plurality of previous allelic ladder sample runs conducted using CE instruments. The one or more synthetic or experimentally derived allelic ladders are used to find a sufficient fit to the test fragment sizing data to identify which of the plurality of alleles are present in the biological sample. The statistical analysis may comprise a principal component analysis including two principal components.

First and second filter magazines in each of which plural filters having different transmission wavelengths from each other are arranged in a row are provided, and the first and second filter magazines are arranged next to each other in one direction. A light detection unit in which plural photomultipliers of first and second photomultipliers, each of which detects light that has passed through at least one of the filters included in the first and second filter magazines, are arranged in the arrangement direction of the filters is provided, and the light detection unit is placed in the one direction in such a manner to be parallel to the first and second filter magazines. The apparatus is configured in such a manner that the first and second filter magazines and the light detection unit are movable in the arrangement direction of the filters.