The present disclosure provides methods, devices, systems and kits for producing polymeric microbeads, including lanthanide-encoded microbeads. Among others, the present disclosure provides methods, systems and kits for producing functionalized microbeads that include on their surfaces amphipathic moieties with free reactive groups that remain free and can be used for covalently coupling molecules or moieties of inters to the microbeads.

A microfluidic chip and a fabrication method of the microfluidic chip are provided. The microfluidic chip includes an array substrate, and a hydrophobic layer disposed on a side of the array substrate. The hydrophobic layer includes at least one through-hole, and a through-hole of the at least one through-hole penetrates through the hydrophobic layer along a direction perpendicular to a plane of the array substrate. The microfluidic chip also includes at least one hydrophilic structure. A hydrophilic structure of the at least one hydrophilic structure is disposed in the through-hole.

Micro-Organosphers, including Patient-Derived Micro-Organospheres (PMOSs), apparatuses and methods of making them, and apparatuses and methods of using them. Also described herein are methods and systems for screening a patient using these Patient-Derived Micro-Organospheres, including personalized therapies.

Microlaser based dye doped polymeric resonators are provided as well as pharmaceutical formulations containing the microlaser based dye doped polymeric resonators, methods of making thereof, and methods of use thereof for monitoring and/or stimulating electrical activity in a brain of a subject in need thereof. The microlaser based dye doped polymeric resonators can include a particle having a spherical core containing one or more fluorescent dyes dispersed within a polymer matrix, wherein the polymer matrix has an index of refraction of about 1.2 or greater; an outer surface surrounding the spherical core; and a gold nanoparticle, wherein the gold nanoparticle is on the outer surface, is dispersed within the spherical core, or both. The fluorescent dyes can include a voltage sensitive fluorescent dye.

Methods and systems for sorting particles are provided. Methods and systems for sorting cell beads are provided. In some cases, cell beads may be sorted from particles unoccupied with cell derivatives. In some cases, singularly occupied cell beads may be sorted from unoccupied particles and multiply occupied cell beads.

An electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) microfluidic device comprises at least one integrated electrochemical sensor, the electrochemical sensor comprising: a reference electrode; a sensing electrode; and an analyte-selective layer positioned over the sensing electrode. In some embodiments, the electrochemical sensor measures a concentration of an analyte in a fluid sample exposed to the electrochemical sensor based on a potential difference between the reference electrode and the sensing electrode. The first analyte and the second analyte can be selected from a group consisting of K.sup.+, Na.sup.+, Ca.sup.2+, Cl.sup.−, HCO.sub.3.sup.−, Mg.sup.2+, H.sup.+, Ba.sup.2+, Pb.sup.2+, Cu.sup.2+, I.sup.−, NH4.sup.+, (SO4).sup.2−.

The present disclosure provides a method for detection of an analyte in a sample, where the sample is introduced into an analytic chamber along with droplets of an emulsion or gel beads. In another aspect, the present disclosure provides designs for formulations of emulsion drops or gel beads such that they are useful for detection of analytes in a massively parallel manner. Formulations that contain specific combinations of fluorescent particles allow optical determination of the identity of each fluorescent particle. The combinations are based on particle fluorescence emission wavelength, fluorescence excitation wavelength, and particle count.

Disclosed herein is an apparatus comprising: a first switch and a second switch; wherein the first switch is configured to apply a drive signal to a first electrode when the first switch receives a control signal; wherein the second switch is configured to electrically isolate the first electrode from a second electrode when the second switch receives the control signal; wherein the second switch is configured to short-circuit the first electrode to the second electrode when the second switch does not receive the control signal; wherein the first electrode and the second electrode face each other and are separated by a gap configured to accommodate a liquid droplet.

Provided is a new method for more efficiently generating emulsion particles each containing one fine particle.

The present technology provides a method of collecting fine particles, in which in a fine particle sorting mechanism having a channel structure including a main channel through which the fine particles flow, a collection channel into which particles to be collected are collected from among the fine particles, a connection channel that connects the main channel and the collection channel, and a liquid supply channel connected to the connection channel so as to supply a liquid, the method includes: a flow step of causing a first liquid containing the fine particles to flow through the main channel; a determination step of determining whether or not the fine particles flowing through the main channel are the particles to be collected; and a collection step of collecting the particles to be collected into the collection channel, and, in the collection step, the particles to be collected are collected into a second liquid that is immiscible with the first liquid in the collection channel while being contained in the first liquid.

The present invention relates to the field of biological diagnosis in oncology. It relates to a method and apparatus for detecting and/or characterizing tumor cells by detecting one or more elements of the tumor cell secretome, in particular one or more peptides or proteins, and, in particular, one or more tumor markers. The invention also relates to detecting and/or characterizing droplets of tumor cells and their method of preparation.