Embodiments described herein may be useful in the detection of analytes. The systems and methods may allow for a relatively simple and rapid way for detecting analytes such as chemical and/or biological analytes and may be useful in numerous applications including sensing, food manufacturing, medical diagnostics, performance materials, dynamic lenses, water monitoring, environmental monitoring, detection of proteins, detection of DNA, among other applications.

The present invention relates to compositions comprising magnetic particles, the methods of using these compositions in processing animal sperm, the resulting sperm and embryo products, and the methods of use of these compositions to increase the efficiency, efficacy and/or speed of cell processing and artificial insemination techniques.

The invention provides high throughput methods, protein inhibitors, and uses thereof. The invention provides high throughput methods of screening compounds for modulation of protein thermal stability, the method comprising contacting a protein with each of a plurality of test compounds; and (b) measuring the melting transition (T.sub.m) of the protein in the presence of each of the plurality of test compounds, wherein a compound that decreases or increases the apparent Tm by at least 2 standard deviations is identified as a pharmacological protein chaperone.

A fluid-tightly sealable sampling device for analysis of one or more substances in a fluid flow intended to pass through the sampling device is disclosed, wherein it comprises an adsorption device (1) which is hollow and is adapted to be provided with one or more reagents for adsorption of and reaction with said one or more substances in the fluid flow, a filter holder (2), which is hollow and is connected in a fluid-tight way with the adsorption device (1), a filter device (4) adapted to be provided with one or more reagents for adsorption of and reaction with said one or more substances in the fluid flow, a gasket (5) provided with at least one projection (6) engaged with at least one corresponding receiving slot in the filter holder (2), a first external cap (9) detachably connected with the inlet end of the sampling device in a fluid-tight way and a second external cap (13) detachably connected with the outlet end of the sampling device in a fluid-tight way.

The present invention provides a novel target analysis chip and analysis method for directly detecting a target such as a microRNA without performing PCR.

According to a pad which is used for an immunochromatographic device for extracting a substance to be detected contained in a detection target in an analyte with nitrous acid and which contains an acid anhydride having vapor pressure at 25 C. of 510.sup.2 Pa or less and solubility in water at 25 C. of 0.1 mg/L or more, the storage stability is improved; a substance to be detected contained in an analyte is detected with high sensitivity; and the complexity of production is reduced.

According to one embodiment, a method of detecting or quantifying a detection target in a specimen includes: irradiating a reaction mixture containing composite particles and the specimen with light to promote binding between the composite particles and the detection target; and performing measurement on the reaction mixture irradiated with the light to detect or quantify the detection target. The composite particles each include a carrier particle including two or more regions having different physical properties on a surface, and an affinity substance carried on the carrier particle and having affinity to the detection target. The light can be absorbed by at least one of the two or more regions.

The disclosed methods use a multi-phase system to separate samples according to the density of an analyte of interest. The method uses a multi-phase system that comprises two or more phase-separated solutions and a phase component such as a surfactant or polymer. The density of the analyte of interest differs from the densities of the rest of the sample. The density of the analyte of interest is substantially the same as one or more phases. Thus, when the sample is introduced to the multi-phase system, the analyte of interest migrates to the phase having the same density as the analyte of interest, passing through one or more phases sequentially.

Disclosed is a biochemical detection device in which a reaction incubation time required for a biomolecular reaction in a liquid-phase based point-of-care detection reaction device is passively controlled using a dissolvable material layer in a limited volume, thereby to minimize the user intervention.

The biochemical detection device includes a substrate; a probe disposed on the substrate; a dissolvable material layer disposed on the substrate, wherein the dissolvable material layer has a first opening defined therein, wherein the probe is received in the first opening; an absorbing material layer disposed on the dissolvable material layer and having a second opening defined therein, wherein the first opening communicates with the second opening and is smaller than the second opening; and a non-dissolvable material layer disposed on an inner face of the second opening of the absorbing material layer and on an exposed top face of the dissolvable material layer.

The present invention provides a method for capturing specific cells (e.g. many types of cancer cells, including cancer cells not expressing EpCAM), and a method for analysis of specific cells involving the method. Included is a method for capturing specific cells present in blood or biological fluid, the method including: agglutinating blood cells in sampled blood or biological fluid; centrifuging the resulting blood or biological fluid; and then capturing specific cells therefrom onto a hydrophilic polymer layer.