A modular cassette is provided for separating a composite fluid into at least two component parts thereof during centrifugation. The modular cassette includes: a housing defining a fluid inlet, a fluid outlet, and a chamber for fluid separation; a fluidic channel configured to provide fluid communication between at least two components of the modular cassette; a heat expanding valve including: a flow pathway including undulations configured to facilitate closing of the fluidic channel, wherein the heat expanding valve occludes one or more of the undulations of the flow pathway to close the fluidic channel; and a heating element configured to actuate the heat expanding valve.

In certain embodiments, the present invention provides amplification methods in which nucleotide tag(s) and, optionally, a barcode nucleotide sequence are added to target nucleotide sequences. In other embodiments, the present invention provides a microfluidic device that includes a plurality of first input lines and a plurality of second input lines. The microfluidic device also includes a plurality of sets of first chambers and a plurality of sets of second chambers. Each set of first chambers is in fluid communication with one of the plurality of first input lines. Each set of second chambers is in fluid communication with one of the plurality of second input lines. The microfluidic device further includes a plurality of first pump elements in fluid communication with a first portion of the plurality of second input lines and a plurality of second pump elements in fluid communication with a second portion of the plurality of second input lines.

A microfluidic cartridge for detecting one nucleic acid of a sample, including a plurality of functional volumes split into functional areas and a fluidic network of microchannels. At least three functional areas are fluidly connected to a central distribution hub of fluids by one or more hub-connected microchannels, the central distribution hub being capable of pumping and injecting fluids from a first functional area to a second functional area by passing through the central distribution hub; and at least three valves of hub-connected microchannels are arranged so that the at least three valves are adapted to be actuated mechanically by a single external cam-driven actuator.

Provided herein, among other aspects, are methods and apparatuses for analyzing particles in a sample. In some aspects, the particles can be analytes, cells, nucleic acids, or proteins and contacted with a tag, partitioned into aliquots, detected by a ranking device, and isolated. The methods and apparatuses provided herein may include a microfluidic chip. In some aspects, the methods and apparatuses may be used to quantify rare particles in a sample, such as cancer cells and other rare cells for disease diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment.

An apparatus for microfiltration and a scalable method for manufacture of an inertial microfluidic device for such microfiltration apparatus are provided. The apparatus for microfiltration includes one or more inertial microfluidic devices, each including a plurality of spirals of a microfluidic channel. At least one of the inertial microfluidic devices is configured to utilize outer wall focusing for high volume fraction microfiltration of particles. The scalable method for manufacture of the inertial microfluidic device includes micromachining on a polycarbonate-based substrate a rectangular spiral microchannel having one or more input channels and a plurality of output channels configured to utilize high volume fraction outer wall focusing for microfiltration of particles.

Methods and systems for mRNA analysis and quantification of mRNA expression in cells are provided. An example method includes introducing a first capture probe and a second capture probe into the cells, the first capture probe and the second capture probe each configured to be complementary to a respective section of target mRNA within the cells, wherein binding of the first and second capture probes to the respective sections of the target mRNA results in tagging of the cells and causes the first and second capture probes to form clusters with each other. The first capture probe and the second capture probe are each bound to magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) that, when trapped within the tagged cells, cause the tagged cells to be susceptible to magnetic forces. The method and system further include introducing the cells into a device configured to magnetically capture tagged cells.

A spiral inertial microfluidics device has been designed for use as a microfluidic sorting device. The device includes a spiral microchannel in which particles or cells of different sizes go through regions having different magnitudes of inertial and/or drag forces and equilibrate at different lateral positions in the microchannel so that those particles or cells of different sizes are separated. Using different focusing characteristics of larger versus smaller particles/cells in the spiral microchannel, adventitious agents (AAs) such as bacteria, virus, mycoplasma, etc. can be selectively removed from cells such as those producing therapeutic enzymes or monoclonal antibodies or those comprising the product itself.

The present invention relates to an ex vivo method for producing platelets including a combination of use of pharmacological substances and microfluidic device features, for high yield and high quality platelet production from megakaryocytes or their progenitors.

A fine particle capture device, having a chip that has a plane part and projection parts, and is configured such that fine particle-containing liquid entering from an inlet port passes on the surface of the plane part in the chip and between a projection part and another projection part adjacent thereto and the liquid is discharged from an outlet port. The projection parts are disposed on the plane part in the form of layers. The layers each has a plurality of projection parts, and are configured such that the fine particle-containing liquid having passed through a layer on the inlet port side passes through a layer on the outlet port side adjacent thereto. Each layer has a capture part and a bypass part. The capture part is disposed on the outlet port side of the bypass part in a specific layer as a portion of another layer adjacent thereto.

Exemplary liquid lenses generally include two liquids disposed within a microfluidic cavity disposed between a first window and a second window. Applying varying electric fields to these liquid lenses can vary the wettability of one of the liquids with respect to this microfluidic cavity, thereby varying the shape and/or the curvature of the meniscuses formed between the two liquids and, thus, changing the optical focal length or the optical power of the liquid lenses. These liquids can expand and/or contract as result of varying temperatures. The exemplary liquid lenses include one or more thermal compensation chambers to allow these liquids to expand and/or contract without impacting the integrity of the microfluidic cavity, for example, without bowing or deflecting the first window and/or the second window.