Fluidic device includes a manifold body having first and second body sides. The first body side has receiving ports forming a port array that defines a reaction region. The second body side has open-sided recesses forming reaction chambers when the fluidic device is mounted onto a sample substrate. The reaction chambers form a chamber array that defines a fluid-delivery region. The reaction region is greater than the fluid-delivery region. The manifold body also includes vent openings that open to an exterior. The fluidic device also includes upstream channels extending through the manifold body. Each of the upstream channels fluidly couples a corresponding receiving port of the port array to a corresponding reaction chamber of the chamber array. The fluidic device also includes venting channels extending through the manifold body. Each of the venting channels fluidly couples a corresponding reaction chamber of the chamber array to a corresponding vent opening.

A system (1) for infectious disease screening. The system is for use with an assay device (2) which incorporates an ultrasonic transducer for generating ultrasonic waves to lyse cells in a biological sample. The system (1) comprises a frequency control module which is configured to control the ultrasonic transducer (49) to oscillate at an optimum frequency for cell lysis, a PCR arrangement (16) which is configured to receive and amplify the DNA from the sample; and a detection arrangement (70) which is configured to detect the presence of an infectious disease in the amplified DNA and to provide an output which is indicative of whether or not the detection arrangement (70) detects the presence of an infectious disease in the amplified DNA.

A system for analyzing a biological sample may include at least one sample acquisition stage comprising a sample acquisition device for acquiring the biological sample from a sample source; a droplet generator device for forming a droplet wrapped in an immiscible carrier fluid, wherein the wrapped droplet comprises at least the biological sample and a reagent, the droplet generator configured to receive the biological sample transferred from the sample acquisition device; a collection vessel for collecting the wrapped sample droplet from the droplet generator, the vessel configured to contain a carrier fluid for receiving and protecting the sample droplet; and an analysis system for analyzing the wrapped sample droplet and detecting products of a polymerase chain reaction.

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.

A sample-reagent mixture is thermal cycled through a plurality of cycles. Each thermal cycle includes actuating a heater to heat the sample-reagent mixtures; and dispensing a fluid onto the sample-reagent mixture to cool the sample reagent mixture.

A biological sample analysis system including a sample preparation system forming droplets of segmented sample separated by a carrier fluid immiscible with the sample. The droplets include reaction mixtures for amplification of at least one target nucleic acid. A thermal cycling device having a sample block having a plurality of controlled thermal zones, and a containment structure in thermal communication with the plurality of controlled thermal zones. The containment structure receives and contains the droplets of segmented sample separated by the immiscible carrier fluid from the sample preparation system. A controller for controlling a temperature in each thermal zone of the sample block. A detection system detects electromagnetic radiation emitted from each of the droplets individually from the queue of droplets as they flow past the detection system. A positioning system to facilitate moving a queue of the droplets in the thermal cycling device relative to the detection system.

Provided herein are devices and methods for thawing frozen biological material.

A sample heating/cooling device (2) comprises a plurality of members (6) operable in use to heat and/or cool one or more samples (22). Each member (6) has a sample contact surface and is biased towards a resting position under the operation of a biasing means. The members (6) are movable independently of one another against said bias under the application of a force on the sample contact surface and so are able to conform to the shape of a sample placed on the members to provide a uniform heating/cooling profile. The members (6) may be mounted in a heating/cooling element (4) and adapted to conduct thermal energy between the sample (22) and the element (4). The device (2) is particularly suitable for thawing frozen sample bags having an irregular shape. A corresponding method is also described.

A sample rack that has at least one axially extended receptacle for a sample tube (30). The sample rack has a code arrangement on its outside. This code arrangement contains information regarding the position of the at least one receptacle as well as information regarding the total number of receptacles and/or the dimension of the sample rack. A sample carrier system (1) is further provided that has a sample carrier with at least one sample rack receptacle and a set of sample racks. The sample rack receptacle and the sample racks have interacting mechanisms which characterize their affiliation.

A sample heating/cooling device comprises a plurality of members operable in use to heat and/or cool one or more samples. Each member has a sample contact surface and is biased towards a resting position under the operation of a biasing means. The members are movable independently of one another against said bias under the application of a force on the sample contact surface and so are able to conform to the shape of a sample placed on the members to provide a uniform heating/cooling profile. The members may be mounted in a heating/cooling element and adapted to conduct thermal energy between the sample and the element. The device is particularly suitable for thawing frozen sample bags having an irregular shape. A corresponding method is also described.