A holding apparatus includes a top holder having a coupler and a top casing capable of adjusting the distance and tilt therebetween using three points adjustment. When a microfluidic device along with a cover are disposed on a bottom holder of the holding apparatus and the top holder is pivoted with respect to the bottom holder to a closed position, the contact surface of soft plugs on the coupler and the cover can be made parallel by a certain distance with a first surface of the microfluidic device, and the distance between the coupler and the top casing determines the pressure exerted through elastic components onto the microfluidic device, so that external pipes can be seamlessly attached to the microfluidic device and also ensuring no deformation due to external forces should happen on microfluidic device.

The invention provides a version of fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) in which all the steps are performed at physiological temperatures, i.e., body temperature, to detect and identify pathogenic bacteria in clinical samples. Methods of the invention use species-specific fluorescent probes to label clinically important infectious bacteria. A sample such as a urine sample is loaded into a cartridge, fluorescently labeled, and imaged with a microscope. Labelled bacteria are pulled down onto an imaging surface and a dye cushion is used to keep unbound probes off of the imaging surface. A microscopic image of the surface shows whether and in what quantities the infectious bacteria are present in the clinical sample.

A unitary, molded fluid reservoir body to which a fluid ejection head substrate is attached. The unitary, molded fluid reservoir body includes one or more discrete fluid chambers therein. Each of the one or more fluid chambers have an open top, side walls, and sloped bottom walls attached to the side walls, wherein each of the one or more fluid chambers terminates in a fluid supply via, and wherein the sloped bottom walls have an angle ranging from about 6 to about 12 degrees relative to a plane orthogonal to the sidewalls. An ejection head support face is disposed opposite the open top for attachment of a single fluid ejection device to the ejection head support face for ejecting fluid provided from the one or more chambers through the one or more fluid supply vias.

The present invention provides devices, systems, and methods for rapid and easy-to-use in sample thermal cycling or temperature changes for the facilitation of reactions such as but not limited to PCR.

Described herein are systems and methods for dividing a population of particles into two or more subpopulations, reacting each formed subpopulation of particles with a different reagent, pooling the reacted subpopulations of particles back together.

A fluid delivery device includes at least one area onto which at least one support element having at least one well may be placed in a defined position. The fluid delivery device further includes at least one pipetting device having a connector configured to releasably connect the at least one pipetting device with a disposable tip and with a fluid displacement element which enables aspiration and ejection of a defined volume of liquid to or from the disposable tip. The at least one pipetting element is movable in a vertical and preferably in at least one horizontal direction. The fluid delivery device also includes a blowing element that has at least one aperture coupled to a source of pressurized gas and is movable in a vertical and preferably at least one horizontal direction. A system includes such a fluid delivery device and the at least one support element.

The disclosure provides cartridges that are pre-loaded with reagents for performing antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and FISH testing. Cartridges of the disclosure include various incubation wells loaded with different antimicrobial agents for differential growth analysis. Imaging wells with species-specific microbial probes, fluorescent tags, magnetic particles and dye-cushion layers allow for tagging and imaging of target microbes for differential growth analysis.

The invention(s) cover systems and methods for target detection in a multiplexed and rapid manner. Embodiments of the system can include: a base substrate; and an array of sample processing regions defined at a broad surface of the base substrate, wherein each of the array of sample processing regions includes: a set of microwell subarrays arranged in a gradient by volumetric capacity between an upstream end and a downstream end of each respective sample processing region, and a boundary separating each respective sample processing region from adjacent sample processing regions. The system can support methods, with example implementation by an automated platform, for returning preliminary results from a subset of microwells of the samples processing regions, as well as results pertaining to specific and non-specific amplification, for multiple targets of a sample.

A pipette tip extension attachable to a pipette tip with the pipette tip extension having a proximal end, a distal end, and exterior wall extending between the proximal end and the distal end is disclosed. The exterior wall having an outer side and inner side and forming at the proximal end a reception aperture for inserting a pipette tip, and at a distal end a dispense aperture. An inner cavity is enclosed by the inner side of the exterior wall and one or more distance elements connected to the inner side of the exterior wall. The distance element(s) being configured to position a pipette tip within the inner cavity and to establish fluid uptake area adjacent the inner side of the exterior wall with the fluid uptake area extending from the dispense aperture towards the reception aperture and being in fluid connection with the surrounding atmosphere at the reception aperture.

According to an example aspect of the present invention, there is provided a spacer plate for a rack for disposable pipette tips, the rack comprising: a tip plate comprising openings, the openings being adapted for holding a first set of disposable pipette tips; wherein the rack is stackable on another rack adapted for holding a second set of disposable pipette tips, to a nested and stacked configuration; wherein: the spacer plate is configured to be fixed under said tip plate; the spacer plate comprises a plurality of openings, the openings being adapted to receive narrow ends of the disposable pipette tips held by the tip plate; and in the nested and stacked configuration of the rack, the spacer plate is configured to delimit upward-directed movement of disposable pipette tips held by said another rack.