The invention concerns a robotic method for coating the bottom surface of at least one well of a multiwell plate by a polyelectrolyte multilayer film, the multiwell plate obtainable according to the method and the use thereof for cell culture.

The invention relates to a device and a method for growing and screening of plant samples, comprising a specialized multiwell plate system well-suited for housing granular media, for use in in vivo screening methods of uninterrupted plant tissue growth.

Systems, methods, and apparatus are provided for evacuating and for filling an array at the point of use.

An array of membranes comprising amphipathic molecules is formed using an apparatus comprising a support defining an array of compartments. Volumes comprising polar medium are provided within respective compartments and a layer comprising apolar medium is provided extending across the openings with the volumes. Polar medium is flowed across the support to displace apolar medium and form a layer in contact with the volumes, forming membranes comprising amphipathic molecules at the interfaces. In one construction of the apparatus, the support that comprises partitions which comprise inner portions and outer portions. The inner portions define inner recesses without gaps therebetween that are capable of constraining the volumes comprising polar medium contained in neighbouring inner recesses from contacting each other. The outer portions extend outwardly from the inner portions and have gaps allowing the flow of an apolar medium across the substrate.

A method for washing particles includes obtaining an array plate that includes an array of hydrophilic areas surrounded by one or more hydrophobic areas. A respective solution containing a sample is located on a respective hydrophilic area of the array of hydrophilic areas. The respective hydrophilic area includes one or more indentations from a respective surrounding hydrophobic area of the one or more hydrophobic areas. The respective hydrophilic area includes a first indented surface that is offset from a reference surface defined by the respective surrounding hydrophobic area. The method also includes placing an aspirator nozzle above the respective hydrophilic area at a predefined distance from the first indented surface, and aspirating the solution with the aspirator nozzle while the aspirator nozzle is located at the predefined distance from the first indented surface.

Disclosed herein is a device for reducing the volume of an aquatic sample, comprising, a substrate; a metal layer disposed above the substrate; a hydrophobic layer disposed above the metal layer having a plurality of assay wells formed therein; and a hydrophilic layer coated on each of the plurality of assay wells. Also encompassed in the present disclosure are a kit comprising the device and a lipoplex containing a liposome and a fluorescence-labeled molecular beacon inside the liposome, and use of the kit in detecting a target nucleic acid in a biological sample.

A microparticle filling method of the present disclosure is a method of filling at least one or more containers with microparticles, including: sucking a suspension of the microparticles into a nozzle; concentrating the microparticles in the suspension to form a high-concentration suspension having a predetermined microparticle concentration at a tip of the nozzle; bringing the high-concentration suspension in contact with an inner wall of the container; and separating the nozzle from the container after the contact to fill the container with the high-concentration suspension.

Methods and apparatuses for mechanically controlling microfluidic movement using a force applicator and an elastically deformable sheet are described herein. These apparatuses may include a mechanical microfluidics actuator devices and a cartridge. A microfluidic droplet may be moved or displaced within an air gap of the cartridge by applying a compressive force locally and selectively reduce the gap width of the air gap near the microfluidic droplet causing the microfluidic droplet to move toward the reduced gap. Compressive forces may also be used to divide, join, mix or perform other operations on the microfluidic droplets.

Arrays of droplet-on-demand dispensers are controlled by a row-column addressing scheme that can reduce the number of on-chip address lines, thereby making it feasible to construct large dispenser arrays. Decoders are used to further reduce the number of control lines that select a specific address line. A microfluidic logic controller includes row-select lines, each coupled to dispensers disposed on the same row, and column-select lines, each coupled to dispensers disposed on the same column such that each dispenser is associated with a unique row-column address. A logic circuit can actuate a dispenser only if the logic circuit receives signals from both of the row-select line and the column-select line corresponding to the row-column address of the selected dispenser. Reagents can be dispensed from the dispenser array, thereby allowing for rapid formatting of a reagent library into microfluidic droplets.

The method includes preparing a liquid supply pipe in which the solution to be inspected, air, and oil are disposed in this order, and installing the liquid supply pipe above the substrate at an angle such that the solution to be inspected is positioned on a lowermost side and the solution to be inspected, the air, and the oil flow onto a front surface of the substrate by gravity. A cross-sectional area of the liquid supply pipe is designed such that the air continues to be present between the solution to be inspected and the oil while the solution to be inspected, the air, and the oil are flowing through the liquid supply pipe, and after the solution to be inspected is supplied to the spot, the solution to be inspected present on the front surface of the substrate is replaced with the air, and then the liquid supply progresses.