Screening assays and methods of performing such assays are provided. In certain examples, the assays and methods may be designed to determine whether or not two or more species can associate with each other. In some examples, the assays and methods may be used to determine if a known antigen binds to an unknown monoclonal antibody.

The present disclosure provides methods, device, and system for wafer processing. The wafer processing apparatus uses lid dispenser to disperse at least one reagent to the surface of the wafer. Further, the wafer is positioned on top of a rotatable vacuum chuck configured to spread at least one reagent over the surface of the wafer via a centrifugal force or surface tension, thereby permitting the at least one reagent to react with an additional reagent. Further, when dispensing the at least one reagent, a separation gap between the lid dispenser and the wafer is at a predetermined distance, for example, from 50 m to 2 mm.

The present disclosure relates to method of monitoring a solid-phase reaction on a surface of a substrate by taking measurements at a plurality of positions on the surface. Properties of the surface are determined based on the measurements taken. Based on the properties determined, the extent of the solid-phase reaction is determined. This method can be achieved by using an ellipsometer and measuring the changes in thickness of the surface before and after the solid-phase reaction.

Disclosed herein is a substrate which includes a functional group protected with a photolabile group covalently attached to the substrate and a film of solvent thereof covering the substrate, where the thickness of the film is less than about 100 m. Also disclosed herein are methods of preparing such substrates. Further disclosed are methods of synthesizing polymers, methods of synthesizing arrays of polymers and methods of removing photolabile protecting groups. These methods all employ covering the substrate with a thin film of solvent where the thickness of the film is less than 100 m.

The invention is directed to methods for massively parallel template-free enzymatic synthesis of a plurality of different polynucleotides of predetermined sequences. In one aspect, methods of the invention employ large scale arrays of reaction sites each associated with at least one working electrode for controlling deprotection and deblocking steps at predetermined user selected sites. In another aspect, the invention provides template-free enzymatic synthesis with proofreading, wherein completed polynucleotides at predetermined reaction sites are sequenced using a sequencing by synthesis technique, particularly employing electrochemically labile blocking groups.

According to an aspect of the present inventive concept there is provided a molecular synthesis array comprising: a substrate; an insulating layer (202) arranged on the substrate; a plurality of column lines (102) extending in parallel along a column direction of the molecular synthesis array (100), and a plurality of row lines (104) extending in parallel along a row direction of the molecular synthesis array (100), wherein the column lines (102) are vertically separated from the row lines (104) and extend transverse to the row lines (104); a plurality of synthesis cells (105), wherein each cell (200) is coupled to a respective pair of a column line and a row line and comprises: a lower electrode (226) and an upper electrode (206) vertically separated from each other and embedded in the insulating layer (202), a synthesis well (223) extending from an upper surface (225) of the insulating layer (202) to the lower electrode (226), through the insulating layer (202) and through the upper electrode (206), wherein the well (223) exposes a surface portion (214) of the upper electrode (206) and a surface portion (220) of the lower electrode (226), and a select transistor (106) having a first terminal (114a), a second terminal (114b) and a gate terminal (114c), the first and second terminals (114a, 114b) forming respective source/drain terminals of the select transistor (106), wherein the gate terminal (114c) is coupled to the row line, the first terminal (114a) is coupled to the column line, the second terminal (114b) is coupled to the lower electrode (226), and the upper electrode (206) is coupled to a reference voltage, or wherein the gate terminal (114c) is coupled to the row line, the first terminal (114a) is coupled to the column line, the second terminal (114b) is coupled to the upper electrode (206), and the lower electrode (226) is coupled to a reference voltage.

A method including (a) providing an amplification reagent including an array of sites, and a solution having different target nucleic acids; and (b) reacting the amplification reagent to produce amplification sites each having a clonal population of amplicons from a target nucleic acid from the solution. The reacting can include simultaneously transporting the nucleic acids to the sites at an average transport rate, and amplifying the nucleic acids that transport to the sites at an average amplification rate, wherein the average amplification rate exceeds the average transport rate. The reacting can include producing a first amplicon from a nucleic acid that transports to each of the sites, and producing subsequent amplicons from the nucleic acid or from the first amplicon, wherein the average rate at which the subsequent amplicons are generated exceeds the average rate at which the first amplicon is generated.