A mixer for generating particles, comprising a first mixing unit, wherein the first mixing unit comprises a first channel (702) and a second channel (701), the first channel (702) comprises a rectilinear channel, the second channel (701) comprises a curvilinear channel. The mixer is particularly suitable for producing nanoparticles, and the mixing efficiency can be improved. A microfluidic hybrid chip cartridge prepared by the mixer is also provided.

A fluid ejection device may include a first channel having a first end and a second end, a first drop ejector along the first channel, a second channel having a first end and a second end, a second drop ejector along the second channel, a third channel extending between and connecting the first end of the first channel and the first end of the second channel, a fourth channel extending between and connecting the second end of the firs channel and the second end of the second channel and a fifth channel extending between and connecting the third channel and the fourth channel.

Fluidic systems and methods in which oscillatory flow is employed are generally described. In some instances, one or more solenoids are used to drive the oscillation of a magnetically-susceptible body which creates oscillatory flow of a fluid in a fluidic channel in fluid communication with a channel containing the magnetically-susceptible body.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a control-engaged electrode-driving method for droplet actuation is provided. The method includes, a first voltage is provided to a first electrode for licking off a droplet. A second voltage is naturally discharged to a third voltage for maintaining a droplet movement. A fourth voltage is provided to the first electrode for accelerating the droplet. Naturally discharging from the second voltage to the third voltage and providing the fourth voltage to the first electrode are repeated. The first voltage is provided to a second electrode when a centroid of the droplet reaching a centroid of the first electrode. Naturally discharging from the second voltage to the third voltage and providing the fourth voltage to the second electrode are repeated.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, there is provided a method for: a) high-throughput, multiplexed, affinity-based separation of proteins—especially low abundance proteins—from complex biological mixtures such as serum; and b) high-throughput, multiplexed, affinity-based separation of cells—especially rare cells—from complex biological mixtures such as blood or blood fractions. The separation of proteins or cells is achieved based on differential binding to affinity-capture beads of different sizes and then sorting the protein-bound or cell-bound beads using the concept of centrifugal-induced Dean migration in a spiral microfluidic device. This method enables continuous-flow, high throughput affinity-separation of milligram-scale protein samples or millions of cells in minutes after binding. This is particularly applicable to the isolation of antigen-specific antibodies from polyclonal sera and antigen-specific immune cells or circulating tumor cells from blood, both of which are otherwise highly labor-intensive and expensive to perform.

A device for handling a particle suspension, in particular a cell suspension, which includes at least one channel for flowing the particle suspension, a pumping unit configured to move a driving fluid and control element for controlling the pumping unit. Also, a method for handling a particle suspension, which includes flowing the particle suspension in or out of at least one channel using a driving fluid for driving the particle suspension in the channel.

The present invention is related to a portable apparatus for performing uni-directional convective qPCR or qRT-PCR in a mixing reagent containing a target nucleic acid and a fluorescence dye including denaturation, annealing and extension processes. The apparatus includes at least a temperature controlling unit which comprises at least one heat source and one temperature sensor, a circulation-enabling container, a light source, a photo-detector, a filter, a set of optical elements, and a processor.

The disclosure describes apparatus and methods for multiplexed amplification and detection of nucleic acid targets in a sample. Embodiments of the present disclosure include a mechanical system configured to provide loading, vertical positioning and clamping of a chip; a thermal control system configured to maintain distinct temperatures of the chip, and an optical fluorescence imaging system.

There is a need in the point-of-care diagnostic community for an efficient and portable method for testing blood and other biological fluids that can be easily translated across multiple applications. An aspect of the invention described involves monitoring the optical properties of molecularly-mediated nanoparticle assemblies though an optically transparent and magnetically active microfluidic chip, which has recently emerged as an attractive method for biomarker detection as it is an efficient tool for monitoring the binding events that take place in a sensing assay. In one embodiment, this device is directed towards two-nanoparticle assays that rely on the assembly or disassembly of plasmonic and magnetic nanoparticles in response to a certain analyte. A further embodiment is directed to a spiral microfluidic using inertial forces to filter fluid components by size, connected to a magnetically active channel comprised of a nickel micropad array, optically transparent microchannel, and permanent magnets.

A multiplex PCR chip capable of simultaneously detecting multiple target genes and a multiplex PCR method using the same are proposed. More specifically, in the multiplex PCR chip and multiplex PCR method, after a plurality of spatially separated particle-forming grooves is formed in one or more reaction chambers and a probe in a solution state is injected into the particle-forming grooves, planar shapes of the particle-forming grooves are varied or shapes and patterns of particle holders respectively formed on inner surfaces of the particle-forming grooves are varied, and the probe including primers specifically hybridizing with sequences of different nucleic acid molecules is injected into the particle-forming grooves, whereby simultaneous multiplex detection is possible by allowing multiple target genes to be detected on the basis of positions and shapes of the probe particles and the shapes and patterns of the particle holders respectively formed inside of the probe particles.