A method for fabricating a microfluidic device includes providing an assembly that includes a first silicon substrate having a hydrophilic silicon oxide top surface that includes a microfluidic channel and a second silicon substrate having a hydrophilic silicon oxide bottom surface directly bonded on the top surface of the first silicon substrate, the second silicon substrate including fluidic access holes giving fluidic access to the microfluidic channel. The method also includes exposing the assembly to oxidative species including one or more oxygen atoms and to heat so as to form silicon oxide at a surface of the access holes and of the microfluidic channel.

The present disclosure describes systems and methods for centering a circular object, such as a petri dish, between a plurality of pins. For example, in one embodiment, a method comprises placing a circular object on a rotatable platform surrounded by three moveable pins. In order to roughly center the circular object, the method further comprises moving, for a first time, all of the pins toward the circular object until at least two out of the three pins are touching the circular object. In order to more accurately center the circular object, the method further comprises: moving all of the pins away from the circular object so that it can be rotated without substantial inference; rotating the platform approximately 60 degrees, wherein rotating the platform causes the circular object to also rotate by approximately 60 degrees; and moving, for a second time, all of the pins toward the circular object.

Pipette tip couplers, pipette tips, coupler and tip combinations, and methods for coupling and decoupling a pipette tip to or from, respectively, a pipette tip coupler mounted on a pipette device. The pipette tip couplers include an elastomeric element, a discrete segment assembly, and a coupler stop shoulder surface. The pipette tips include a groove in a first cylindrical section, a second cylindrical section, a tip stop shoulder surface at the interface of the first and second cylindrical sections, a third cylindrical section, a sealing seat surface at the interface of the second and third cylindrical sections, and a fourth section adjacent to the third cylindrical section. When the pipette tip is mounted on the pipette tip coupler, the discrete segment assembly abuts the tip groove, the coupler stop shoulder surface abuts the tip stop shoulder surface, and the elastomeric element abuts the sealing seat surface.

The present invention provides a biological sample holder and handler system for cell-based liquid biopsies. The system is useful for performing diagnostic assays, based on a simple blood sample. For example, the system is useful for delivering precision cancer diagnoses that improve patient outcomes by optimizing treatment options, monitoring therapy efficacy, characterizing metastasis and assessing treatment toxicity

A separation container for extracting a portion of a sample for use or testing and method for preparing samples for downstream use or testing are provided. The separation container may include a body defining an internal chamber. The body may define an opening, and the body may be configured to receive the sample within the internal chamber. The separation container may further include a seal disposed across the opening, such that the seal may be configured to seal the opening of the body, and a plunger movably disposed at least partially inside the internal chamber. The plunger may be configured to be actuated to open the seal and express the portion of the sample.

Pipette tip coupler and a disposable pipette tip for a pipette device comprises a stepped coupler shoulder complementary to an axially stepped pipette tip shoulder; a plurality of circumferentially disposed elements or segments carried by the coupler at a location superior to the coupler shoulder; and a distal elastomeric element carried by the coupler at a location distal to the coupler shoulder wherein the plurality of elements or segments have a circumferential, radially translated state that provides an abutment with a first working surface formed in the interior surface of the tip while compressing the distal elastomeric element into sealing abutment with a second working surface formed in the interior surface of the tip and while abutting the proximally facing axial stop surface of the tip with the distally facing axial stop surface of the coupler to define an axial coupling position of the pipette tip on the pipette device.

The concepts herein relate to a device for collecting, transferring and storing samples of biological and/or chemical material. The device includes a support body extending along a main longitudinal direction between a first and a second end opposite each other and a collecting portion engaged with one of said ends of the support body and suitable for collecting an amount of a sample of biological and/or chemical material. The support body is defined by at least a first sub-body and a second sub-body extending longitudinally and configured to be selectively engaged and separated with and from each other. The support body is configured to operate between an assembled condition, wherein the first and the second sub-body are engaged with each other, and a separated condition, wherein the first and the second sub-body are separated and bear, respectively, a first and a second sub-collecting portion of the collecting portion.

A method for reconstituting a lyophilized reagent contained within a reagent well comprises the steps of drawing a diluent into a pipette tip attached to an automated pipettor and dispensing the diluent into the reagent well containing the lyophilized reagent. The reagent well has an internal side wall, a bottom wall, and an open upper end and includes one or more retention features disposed about the periphery of the internal side wall and defining a central opening into the well that permits passage of the pipette tip into the reagent well. The one or more retention features are integrally formed with the internal side wall, and each of the one or more retention features extends over a portion of the lyophilized reagent, thereby retaining the lyophilized reagent within the reagent well.

Pipette assembly that includes a pipette device, a pipette tip, and a leaf spring coupling device coupling the tip to the pipette device, the coupling device includes a plurality of circumferentially disposed elements or segments in the form of flexible leaf springs with stabilizer plateaus used to retain a pipette tip to the coupler and prevent the pipette tip from rocking on the coupler and a distal elastomeric element, such as an O-ring, and the pipette tip includes dual complemental working surfaces in the pipette tip to provide precise control of an axial coupled position defined as an axial distance from a distally facing axial stop surface of the pipette tip coupler to the end of the pipette tip that contacts liquid when the pipette tip coupler and disposable pipette tip are in a coupled configuration.

Compositions, devices and methods are described for preventing, reducing, controlling or delaying adhesion, adsorption, surface-mediated clot formation, or coagulation in a microfluidic device or chip. In one embodiment, blood (or other fluid with blood components) that contains anticoagulant is introduced into a microfluidic device comprising one or more additive channels containing one or more reagents that will re-activate the native coagulation cascade in the blood that makes contact with it “on-chip” before moving into the experimental region of the chip.