An oil removal device for removing oil from a stream (103) of oil-separated sample droplets (104) is disclosed. The oil removal device comprises a sample delivery channel (101) for conducting the stream of sample droplets to an outlet (102). A porous, hydrophobic and oleophilic absorber element (106) is arranged at the outlet of the sample delivery channel so as to absorb the oil phase (105) from the stream of oil-separated sample droplets. The oil removal device can be used in two-dimensional separation techniques such as LC-MS, LC-CE, CE-CE etc.

Various embodiments of the teachings relate to a system or method for sample preparation or analysis in biochemical or molecular biology procedures. The sample preparation can involve small volume processed in discrete portions or segments or slugs, herein referred to as discrete volumes. A molecular biology procedure can be nucleic acid analysis. Nucleic acid analysis can be an integrated DNA amplification/DNA sequencing procedure.

Microfluidic devices for analyzing droplets are disclosed. A described microfluidic device includes a substrate and a microfluidic channel formed on the substrate. The microfluidic channel includes passages where each passage has a mask pattern configured to modulate a signal of a droplet passing through that passage, such that droplets passing through the passages produce signals. The microfluidic device also includes a detector configured to detect the signals. Methods of analyzing droplets with a microfluidic device having a microfluidic channel formed on a substrate are disclosed. A described method includes passing droplets through the passages, modulating signals from the droplets using mask patterns, formed on the passages; and detecting the signals.

Disclosed in the present application is a sample adding needle for preparing microdroplets, comprising a liquid storage portion and a liquid discharge portion, which are integrally injection molded and penetrate one another; the liquid storage portion is a truncated cone the radial dimension of which gradually decreases in the direction facing the liquid discharge portion, and the liquid discharge portion is a truncated cone the radial dimension of which gradually decreases in the direction away from the liquid storage portion; the taper of the liquid storage portion is C1, the taper of the liquid discharge portion is C2, and C1≤C2; the wall thickness of the liquid storage portion is D1, the wall thickness of the liquid discharge portion is D2, and D1>D2. For the sample adding needle for preparing microdroplets as described in the present application, when preparing microdroplets by using the sample adding needle, the sample adding needle performs periodic reciprocating motion at varying speeds in an oily liquid such that a sample solution is subject to periodic shear force from the oily liquid at a liquid discharge opening, thereby enabling the sample solution within the sample adding needle to enter the oily liquid, thus achieving the production of microdroplets having uniform size and controllable volume.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for serial flow emulsion processes. Systems and methods as described herein can result in reduced cross-contamination, greater accuracy and precision, less expensive materials and processes, decreased run times, and/or other advantages, e.g., through use of improved injectors, partitioners, detectors, and/or other elements useful in serial flow emulsion systems and processes.

The invention provides methods for assessing one or more predetermined characteristics or properties of a microfluidic droplet within a microfluidic channel, and regulating one or more fluid flow rates within that channel to selectively alter the predetermined microdroplet characteristic or property using a feedback control.

An electroporation device is disclosed, which includes a first tubular electrode including a first inlet and a first outlet; an aqueous solution supply connected to the first tubular electrode and configured for supplying an aqueous solution to the first tubular electrode and for allowing a droplet of the aqueous solution to be discharged from the first outlet of the first tubular electrode, the aqueous solution contains a cell and a delivery target substance; a second tubular electrode including a second inlet and a second outlet, wherein the second inlet is spaced away from the first outlet at a spacing corresponding to a size of a portion of the droplet; a power supply for applying a voltage to the electrodes for electroporation of the cell in the droplet; and a droplet sucking unit connected to the second electrode and configured for allowing the droplet to be sucked into the second electrode.

The combined value of integrating optical forces and electrokinetics allows for the pooled separation vectors of each to be applied, providing for separation based on combinations of features such as size, shape, refractive index, charge, charge distribution, charge mobility, permittivity, and deformability. The interplay of these separation vectors allow for the selective manipulation of analytes with a finer degree of variation. Embodiments include methods of method of separating particles in a microfluidic channel using a device comprising a microfluidic channel, a source of laser light focused by an optic into the microfluidic channel, and a source of electrical field operationally connected to the microfluidic channel via electrodes so that the laser light and the electrical field to act jointly on the particles in the microfluidic channel. Other devices and methods are disclosed.

The present invention provides methods of on-demand, reversible generation of aqueous two-phase microdroplets core-shell microbeads, microparticle preparations comprising the core-shell microbeads, and drug delivery formulation comprising the microparticle preparations. Because these aqueous microdroplets have volumes comparable to those of cells, they provide an approach to mimicking the dynamic microcompartmentation of biomaterial that naturally occurs within the cytoplasm of cells. Hence, the present methods generate femtoliter aqueous two-phase droplets within a microfluidic oil channel using gated pressure pulses to generate individual, stationary two-phase microdroplets with a well-defined time zero for carrying out controlled and sequential phase transformations over time. Reversible phase transitions between single-phase, two-phase, and core-shell microbead states are obtained via evaporation-induced dehydration and water rehydration.

We describe a method comprising: providing a droplet comprising a plurality of constituents, splitting said droplet into a first droplet and a second droplet, wherein said first droplet comprises a first fraction of said plurality of constituents and said second droplet comprises a second fraction of said plurality of constituents, analysing said constituents of said first fraction of said plurality of constituents in said first droplet, and sorting said second droplet dependent on an outcome of said analysis.