An apparatus comprising a magnetic assembly and methods for operating the apparatus are provided. The magnetic assembly may be used to manipulate molecules in a liquid preparation, for example to isolate or separate the molecules from the liquid. The magnetic assembly may be used to wash and/or isolate nucleic acid molecules of interest from a liquid preparation.

According to an aspect of the present invention, provided is an immunoassay device including: a control unit controlling relative movement of a stage, which accommodates a cartridge having a plurality of wells, and a solution transfer unit including a tip and the suction and discharge of a solution into/from the tip, wherein the solution transfer unit includes: a driving part providing a pressure for suctioning and discharging the solution into/from the tip; and a magnetic force applying part installed at one side of the tip to apply magnetic force toward the tip, wherein the control unit controls the driving part so that a magnitude of the magnetic force applied to the tip by the magnetic force applying part is adjusted to hold magnetic particles inside the tip after the solution containing the magnetic particles is suctioned into the tip.

The present invention provides devices and methods to separate and concentrate target protein species at a microliter scale and to generate reagents to those variants with exquisite selectivity for specific protein isoforms using only picograms of target material.

A magnetic levitation system is described, including a first and second magnets having surfaces of their like-poles facing each other; and a container disposed between the first and second magnets' like poles and containing a solution including a paramagnetic complex in a non-aqueous solvent, where the paramagnetic complex includes a paramagnetic metal and at least one ligand that coordinates to the paramagnetic metal via electron donation. Methods of separating a mixture of solid compounds, and/or identifying, confirming, and/or predicting the composition of the mixture, are also described.

The present disclosure provides a system including an insulator-based dielectrophoresis device. The insulator-based dielectrophoresis device includes a fluid flow channel having at least one fluid inlet and at least one fluid outlet. The fluid flow channel includes at least one insulating flow structure extending from a wall to define a constriction in the fluid flow channel. The system includes a detection chamber placed in fluid communication with the fluid flow channel by an opening in the wall of the fluid flow channel, where the opening is configured downstream of the at least one insulation flow structure. The detection chamber includes an electrochemical sensor configured to constrict the flow of fluid entering the detection chamber through a pore, where the pore is sized to produce a detectable signal upon passage of an analyte through the pore. The system may process the detectable signal to output a metric indicative of the identity or physiochemical property of the analyte.

Provided are techniques that may include a disposable magnetic cell isolation holder having one or more passages that accommodate a magnetic retention material to facilitate magnetic cell isolation without adjustment of magnetic field parameters between isolation procedures using different magnetic particle sizes. When the magnetic cell isolation holder is coupled to a magnetic field generator, a first passage corresponding to a smaller particle size is positioned in a magnetic field where the magnetic field characteristics are different relative to a second passage, of a second holder or in the same holder, for use with another bead size.

Described herein are systems and methods which utilize an array of wells to isolate pathogens and nucleic acid detection techniques to accurately and rapidly detect pathogens in fluid samples, even in very low concentrations, including from solid or semi-solid samples that have been fluidized. The provided systems and methods dry the fluid sample to deposit a fraction of the total volume in a number of wells and perform nucleic acid detection on individual wells to detect even individual pathogens and provide a quantitative analysis of the amount of pathogen within the sample. Also provided are methods and systems for precise delivery of dried materials, including biomolecules that are enzymes of use in the process, to microwells.

The present invention includes methods, devices and systems for isolating, identifying, analyzing, and quantifying biological materials from fluid samples. In various aspects, the methods, devices and systems may allow for a rapid procedure that requires a minimal amount of material and/or results in high purity biological materials from complex fluids such as blood, serum, or plasma.

The present disclosure relates to, inter alia, devices, systems, and methods for use in the magnetic separation of biological entities from fluid samples. This device includes a magnetic separation chamber configured to receive a fluid sample for magnetic separation, where the magnetic separation chamber includes at least two magnets mounted on the surface or in the wall of the magnetic separation chamber. The device also includes a force provider configured to move the magnetic separation chamber in a side-to-side motion to mix and/or magnetize the fluid sample. In one embodiment, the magnetic separation chamber is in a form of a sleeve and comprises a substantially central channel for loading a vessel containing the fluid sample therein. The systems and methods of the present disclosure involve the use of this device to separate biological entities from fluid samples.

The present invention relates to novel modules for transferring magnetic beads, an automated system comprising the same and a method for extracting nucleic acids using the same. The specifically designed magnet module and cover module of the present invention can be employed in the automated liquid handling apparatus by means of pre-existing moving modules (e.g., pipettor module) of the apparatus. The present invention enables a bead transfer-type method for extracting nucleic acids to be performed in an automated manner on the automated liquid handling apparatus. The present invention provides advantages of higher level of automation, more reduced cost and no need for another separate liquid handling apparatus compared to the conventional bead transfer-type method usually performed in the small apparatus designed to be used only for this bead transfer-type method. Also, the present method has the merits of more shortened reaction time compared to the conventional liquid transfer-type method.