A reaction processing vessel includes: a substrate; a channel for a sample to move that is formed on the substrate; a first air communication port and a second air communication port provided at respective ends of the channel; and a thermal cycle region for applying a thermal cycle to the sample that is formed between the first air communication port and the second air communication port in the channel. The channel includes a first branch channel and a second branch channel between the thermal cycle region and the first air communication port.

Apparatus and methods for determining whether a test compound induces cell activity, changes cell activity, prevents cell activity, or inhibits cell activity. An embodiment comprises placing a test compound solution in contact with a cell suspension media containing cells, diffusing the test compound solution into the cell suspension from one or more sides, and detecting activity in the cells with respect to their distance from the side from which the test compound is diffusing. Embodiments may provide an apparatus that allows a side source, a point source, or both, from which a test compound solution diffuses into a cell suspension media and contacts cells. Detecting cell activity may involve detecting activity in a first cell group proximate to the side from which the test compound is diffusing, and detecting activity in a second cell group farther than the first cell group from the side from which the test compound is diffusing.

A system and method for determining a trajectory parameter of particles, comprising receiving a plurality of particles at a microfluidic channel, applying a force to each particle of the microfluidic channel, acquiring a dataset of each particle, measuring a trajectory of the particle, and determining a trajectory parameter of the particles.

The present disclosure relates to tagged nucleoside-5-oligophosphates having a positively charged polymer tag structure and components thereof. Such nucleoside-5-oligophosphates are useful, for example, in nanopore-based sequencing-by-synthesis applications. Also disclosed herein are nanopore constructs engineered to have additional negatively-charged moieties in the channel of the nanopore. Such nanopores can be useful, for example, for providing a repellant force against template and/or primer nucleic acids inserting into the pore during a nucleic sequence-by-synthesis process. The tagged nucleoside-5-oligophosphates and nanopores disclosed herein can be used together to provide nanopore-based nucleic acid sequencing-by-synthesis systems and processes having reduced background tag levels and improved throughput.

A microfluidic device includes: a first microfluidic channel; a second microfluidic channel extending along the first microfluidic channel; and a first array of islands separating the first microfluidic channel from the second microfluidic channel, in which each island is separated from an adjacent island in the array by an opening that fluidly couples the first microfluidic channel to the second microfluidic channel, in which the first microfluidic channel, the second microfluidic channel, and the islands are arranged so that a fluidic resistance of the first microfluidic channel increases relative to a fluidic resistance of the second microfluidic channel along a longitudinal direction of the first microfluidic channel such that, during use of the microfluidic device, a portion of a fluid sample flowing through the first microfluidic channel passes through one or more of the openings between adjacent islands into the second microfluidic channel.

Methods and apparatus for manufacturing a microfluidic arrangement are disclosed. In one arrangement a continuous body of a first liquid is provided in direct contact with a substrate. A second liquid is provided in direct contact with the first liquid and covering the first liquid. The first liquid is in direct contact exclusively with the second liquid and the substrate. The second liquid is forced through the first liquid and into contact with the substrate in selected regions of the substrate in order to divide the continuous body of the first liquid into a plurality of sub-bodies of the first liquid that are separated from each other by the second liquid. The first liquid is immiscible with the second liquid. Surface tension stably holds the plurality of sub-bodies of the first liquid separated from each other by the second liquid.

Methods and apparatus for controlling flow in a microfluidic arrangement are disclosed. In one arrangement, a microfluidic arrangement comprises a first liquid held predominantly by surface tension in a shape defining a microfluidic pattern on a surface of a substrate. The microfluidic pattern comprises at least an elongate conduit and a first reservoir. A second liquid is in direct contact with the first liquid and covers the microfluidic pattern. A flow of liquid is driven through the elongate conduit into the first reservoir. The microfluidic pattern and the depth and density of the second liquid are such that the first reservoir grows in volume during the flow of liquid into the first reservoir, without either of the size and shape of an area of contact between the first reservoir and the substrate changing, until an upper portion of the first reservoir detaches from a lower portion of the first reservoir due to buoyancy and rises upwards through the second liquid, thereby allowing the first reservoir to continue to receive liquid from the flow of liquid without any change in the size and shape of the area of contact between the first reservoir and the substrate.

A microfluidic device includes a particle sorting region having a first, second and third microfluidic channels, a first array of islands separating the first microfluidic channel from the second microfluidic channel, and a second array of islands separating the first microfluidic channel from the third microfluidic channel, in which the island arrays and the microfluidic channels are arranged so that a first fluid is extracted from the first microfluidic channel into the second microfluidic channel and a second fluid is extracted from the third microfluidic channel into the first microfluidic channel, and so that particles are transferred from the first fluid sample into the second fluid sample within the first microfluidic channel.

A microfluidic device includes: a first microfluidic channel; a second microfluidic channel extending along the first microfluidic channel; and a first array of islands separating the first microfluidic channel from the second microfluidic channel, in which each island is separated from an adjacent island in the array by an opening that fluidly couples the first microfluidic channel to the second microfluidic channel, in which the first microfluidic channel, the second microfluidic channel, and the islands are arranged so that a fluidic resistance of the first microfluidic channel increases relative to a fluidic resistance of the second microfluidic channel along a longitudinal direction of the first microfluidic channel such that, during use of the microfluidic device, a portion of a fluid sample flowing through the first microfluidic channel passes through one or more of the openings between adjacent islands into the second microfluidic channel.

The present invention provides an integrated microfluidic-based device for establishing a wound infection in vivo model suitable for high throughput bioassay such as potential drug screening, in vivo dosing optimization, host-microbe or microbe-microbe interactions under the influence of specific agents of interest, and studying regulatory mechanisms of certain inflammatory diseases relating to or arising from the wound infection. The present invention allows direct qualitative and quantitative assessments of specific markers expressed due to the wound infection by one or more microbes devoid of cell sorting, isolation, or labelling as in other conventional in vivo models or methods.