Methods are provided for separating magnetically responsive beads from a droplet in a droplet actuator. Droplet operations electrodes and a magnet are arranged in a droplet actuator to manipulate a bead-containing droplet and position it relative to a magnetic field region that attracts the magnetically responsive beads. The droplet operations electrodes are operated to control the droplet shape and transport it away from the magnetic field region to form a concentration of beads in the droplet. The continued transport of the droplet away from the magnetic field causes the concentration of beads to break away from the droplet to yield a small, concentrated bead-containing droplet immobilized by the magnet.

The present disclosure is related to a method of producing a microfluidic sorting apparatus. The method includes providing an injection-molded substrate comprising a network of channels; bonding an insulating film to an upper surface of the substrate to cover the network of channels; and depositing a conductive film on the insulating film. The substrate can be separated from the conductive film.

The present invention discloses a microstructured discrimination device for separating hydrophobic-hydrophilic fluidic composites comprising particulate and/or fluids in a fluid flow. The discrimination is the result of surface energy gradients obtained by physically varying a textured surface and/or by varying surface chemical properties, both of which are spatially graded. Such surfaces discriminate and spatially separate particulate and/or fluids without external energy input. The device of the present invention comprises a platform having bifurcating microchannels arranged radially. The lumenal surfaces of the microchannels may have a surface energy gradient created by varying the periodicity of hierarchically arranged microstructures along a dimension. The surface energy gradient is varied in two regions. In one pre-bifurcation region the surface energy gradient generates a fluid flow. In the other post-bifurcation region, there is a difference in surface energy proximal to the bifurcation such that different flow fractions are divided into separate channels in response to different surface energy gradients in each of the post-bifurcation channels. Accordingly, fluids of different hydrophobicity and/or particulate of different hydrophobicity are driven into separate channels by a global minimization of the fluid system energy.

A passive, hydrodynamic technique implemented using a microfluidic device to perform co-encapsulation of samples in droplets and sorting of said droplets is described herein. The hydrodynamic technique utilizes laminar flows and high shear liquid-liquid interfaces at a microfluidic junction to encapsulate samples in the droplets. A sorting mechanism is implemented to separate sample droplets from empty droplets. This technique can achieve a one-one-one encapsulation efficiency of about 80% and can significantly improve the droplet sequencing and related applications in single cell genomics and proteomics.

Disclosed are methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for performing a process on biological samples. An analysis of biological samples in multiple regions of interest in a microfluidic device and a timeline correlated with the analysis may be identified. One or more region-of-interest types for the multiple regions of interest may be determined; and multiple characteristics may be determined for the biological samples based at least in part upon the one or more region-of-interest types. Associated data that respectively correspond to the multiple regions of interest in a user interface for at least a portion of the biological samples in the user interface based at least in part upon the multiple identifiers and the timeline. A count of the biological samples in a region of interest may be determined based at least in part upon a class or type of data using a convolutional neural network (CNN).

A flow stabilized chip includes a chip mainbody, a buffering chamber and two fluid delivery ports. The chip mainbody has a pipe-connection surface. The buffering chamber is disposed in the chip mainbody. The two fluid delivery ports are disposed on the pipe connection surface and connected to the buffering chamber. The chip mainbody includes, in order from the pipe-connection surface to a bottom of the chip mainbody, a first base plate, a first elastic membrane, a second base plate, a second elastic membrane and a third base plate. The first base plate includes a first opening. The second base plate includes a second opening. The third base plate includes a third opening. The first elastic membrane, the second base plate and the second elastic membrane are stacked in sequence to form the buffering chamber.

A liquid handling device includes a common channel, a plurality of wells, a magnetic beads chamber and a plurality of valves. The plurality of valves are rotary membrane valves disposed on the circumference of a first circle. The magnetic beads chamber is disposed on a circumference of the second circle concentric with the first circle.

A droplet collection unit of an embodiment includes a generator and processing circuitry. The generator produces droplets each containing a microorganism and a substrate that reacts with an enzyme derived from the microorganism. The processing circuitry detects a reaction between the enzyme and the substrate in each droplet. The processing circuitry sorts the droplets on the basis of a detection result of the reaction.

The present invention relates to a method for analyzing and selecting a specific droplet among a plurality of droplets (4), comprising the following steps: —providing a plurality of droplets (4), —for a droplet (4) among the plurality of droplets, measuring at least two optical signals, each optical signal being representative of a light intensity spatial distribution in the droplet for an associated wavelength channel, —calculating a plurality of parameters from the optical signals, —determining a sorting class for a droplet according to calculated parameters, —sorting said droplet according to its sorting class, wherein the plurality of parameters comprises the coordinates of a maximum for each optical signal and a co-localization parameter and the at least two calculated parameters used for the determining step comprises the co-localization parameter.

A microfluidic arrangement for manipulating fluids is provided. The microfluidic arrangement comprises a substrate, a first fluid and a second fluid, which is immiscible with the first fluid. The first fluid is arranged to be at least partially covered by the second fluid. The first fluid is arranged in a desired shape on an unpatterned surface of the substrate. The first fluid is retained in said shape by a fluid interface between the first and second fluids. A microfluidic arrangement comprising an array of drops is also provided. The microfluidic arrangement comprises a substrate, a first fluid and a second fluid, which is immiscible with the first fluid. The first fluid is arranged to be at least partially covered by the second fluid. The first fluid is arranged to be covered at least partially by the second fluid. The first fluid is arranged in a given array of drops on an unpatterned surface of the substrate. Each drop cross section area having a (height:width) aspect ratio of (1:2) or less. A method of fabricating a microfluidic arrangement for manipulating fluids is also provided. The method comprises arranging a first fluid on an unpatterned surface of a substrate in a desired shape. The method also comprises arranging a second fluid, which is immiscible with the first fluid, to cover the first fluid at least partially. The first fluid is retained in said shape by a fluid interface between the first and second fluids. The method also comprises drying the first fluid to form a residue in said shape on the substrate.