A microfluidic control system and method for separating flexible particles such as cell vesicles or biomacromolecules such as exosomes in a sample. The system of the present invention comprises one or more ultrahigh frequency acoustic resonators. The ultrahigh frequency acoustic resonators are capable of generating in a fluid channel an acoustic wave of which the frequency is about 0.5-50 GHz and propagated towards a wall opposite the fluid channel. By adjusting the power of the generated acoustic wave and/or the speed at which a conditioning solution flows through an acoustic wave area, flexible particles in a specified range are pushed to and remain at the top part of the flow channel in the acoustic wave area, while flexible particles outside of the specified range go downstream via the acoustic wave area to be collected, thus capturing or releasing the flexible particles in a solution such as cell vesicles or biomacromolecules, particularly exosomes.

Ultrasonic excitation to a sample is provided with an apparatus including: a cylindrical ultrasonic transducer, and a plate disposed on an end of the cylindrical ultrasonic transducer. The ultrasonic transducer is configured to provide a vertical vibration in operation. A Lamb wave vibration is generated in the plate by the vertical vibration of the ultrasonic transducer. The Lamb wave vibration converges at a central region of the plate, where a sample is disposed. Alternatively, a cylindrical array of ultrasonic transducers can be used instead of a single cylindrical transducer. Such an array can be driven as a phased array for beam shaping and/or multi-focusing.

A sonicator assembly, including: a microplate defining a plurality of wells; a manifold for containing a transducer fluid that is thermally coupled to the plurality of wells of the microplate; an ultrasonic generator operable for applying an ultrasonic excitation to the wells of the microplate; one or more of a heating module thermally coupled to and operable for selectively heating the transducer fluid and a cooling module thermally coupled to and operable for selectively cooling the transducer fluid; and a controller operable for controlling operation of the ultrasonic generator and the one or more of the heating module and the cooling module. The controller is further operable for monitoring a temperature and a pressure within the manifold. A temperature of the plurality of wells is controllable over a temperature range from 4° C. to 95° C. Optionally, the plurality of wells include a plurality of heat-resistant round-bottom hydrophilic wells.

A device for cleaning items comprises an enclosure defining a wash chamber, a rotor positioned within the wash chamber and selectively rotatable about an axle, a motor for selectively rotating the axle, a dispenser, and a drain. The rotor comprises a plurality of holders spaced about the axle and adapted to selectively receive and hold a respective item to be cleaned. The dispenser at least one liquid input and at least one liquid output and is positioned such that the at least one liquid output directs cleaning fluid at one of the items to clean material out of the cavities. The drain is for draining the cleaning fluid out of the chamber. The rotor is selectively rotatable at a predefined rotational speed for a predefined amount of time to expel cleaning fluid from the cavities of each item to be cleaned.

A system and method are provided for loading a sample into an analytical instrument using acoustic droplet ejection (“ADE”) in combination with a continuous flow sampling probe. An acoustic droplet ejector is used to eject small droplets of a fluid sample containing an analyte into the sampling tip of a continuous flow sampling probe, where the acoustically ejected droplet combines with a continuous, circulating flow stream of solvent within the flow probe. Fluid circulation within the probe transports the sample through a sample transport capillary to an outlet that directs the analyte away from the probe to an analytical instrument, e.g., a device that detects the presence, concentration quantity, and/or identity of the analyte. When the analytical instrument is a mass spectrometer or other type of device requiring the analyte to be in ionized form, the exiting droplets pass through an ionization region, e.g., an electrospray ion source, prior to entering the mass spectrometer or other analytical instrument. The method employs active flow control and enables real-time kinetic measurements.

A system and method for ejecting one or more fluids from a digital dispense device. The method includes a) inputting to a memory a volume per unit area for each of the one or more fluids to be ejected from the digital dispense device; b) matching the volume per unit area to a device resolution for the digital dispense device; c) formatting fluid ejectors for the digital dispense device for the device resolution; and d) ejecting fluid from the digital dispense device to provide the volume per area for each of the one or more fluids.

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a method and/or a device for carrying out chemical, biochemical and/or immunochemical analyses of liquid samples, which are present in a sample store of an automatic analyzer, with the aid of liquid reagents which are present in at least one reagent store of the analyzer. In one example embodiment, the automatic analyzer includes cuvettes, a first pipettor, a device with an optical measurement unit, a device for heterogenous immunoassays, a cuvette washing unit, a needle washing unit, a temperature control unit.

There is provided a microchip. The microchip comprises a substrate including a flow channel configured to convey a fluid therein. The substrate comprises a first substrate layer, a second substrate layer laminated to the first substrate layer to create the flow channel, and a discharge part formed in only one of the first substrate layer or the second substrate layer. The discharge part includes an opening directed toward an end face of the substrate, and being configured to eject the fluid flowing through the flow channel.

A method is provided for manipulating objects in a cavity including a liquid, the method including providing in at least one region of the cavity objects capable of absorbing light in a given wavelength range, forming an aggregate of the objects by submitting them to an acoustic field, and disrupting the aggregate by submitting the aggregate to a light beam emitting at the given wavelength range. Also provided is a device for manipulating objects.

Embodiments of the present disclosure pertain to methods of utilizing force-modulated hybridization to determine the length of an analyte strand, to determine an unknown nucleic acid sequence, or to determine the binding of a nucleotide to an active agent. Additional embodiments of the present disclosure pertain to sample holder devices and methods of utilizing such devices. Further embodiments of the present disclosure pertain to detection devices.