Contemplated microfluidic devices and methods are drawn to protein arrays in which distinct and detergent-containing antigen preparations are deposited onto an optical contrast layer in a non-specific and non-covalent manner. Detection of binding a is carried out using a dye that precipitates or agglomerates to so form a visually detectable signal at a dynamic range of at least three orders of magnitude.

A microsphere-based analytic chemistry system and method for making the same is disclosed in which microspheres or particles carrying bioactive agents may be combined randomly or in ordered fashion and dispersed on a substrate to form an array while maintaining the ability to identify the location of bioactive agents and particles within the array using an optically interrogatable, optical signature encoding scheme. A wide variety of modified substrates may be employed which provide either discrete or non-discrete sites for accommodating the microspheres in either random or patterned distributions. The substrates may be constructed from a variety of materials to form either two-dimensional or three-dimensional configurations. In a preferred embodiment, a modified fiber optic bundle or array is employed as a substrate to produce a high density array. The disclosed system and method have utility for detecting target analytes and screening large libraries of bioactive agents.

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.

Described is a method of synthesizing nucleic acids on polyester substrates and the resulting compositions of matter. The method synthesizes nucleic acids from surface hydroxyl initiation points present on the substrate surface. These surface hydroxyls are present either naturally, or as a result of a chemical treatment to cleave ester bonds on the substrate surface. The preferred polyester substrate contains PET.

The present invention provides a formulation to link protein to a solid support that comprises one or more proteins, Oligo-dT and one or more non-volatile, water-soluble protein solvents, solutes or combination thereof in an aqueous solution. Further provided is a method of attaching a protein to a surface of a substrate. The formulations provided herein are contacted onto the substrate surface, printed thereon and air dried. The substrate surface is irradiated with UV light to induce thymidine photochemical crosslinking via the thymidine moieties of the Oligo-dT.

The invention provides a method for lysing a single cell embedded in a tissue from the inside of the cell, and collecting the intracellular lysate for use in analytical methods. This method preserves the state of molecules of the cell, and therefore allows for transformation of a single target cell in live tissue into a format that can be evaluated using analytical methods.

Polymers synthesized by solid-phase synthesis are selectively released from a solid support by reversing the bias of spatially addressable electrodes. Change in the current and voltage direction at one or more of the spatially addressable electrodes changes the ionic environment which triggers cleavage of linkers that leads to release of the attached polymers. The spatially addressable electrodes may be implemented as CMOS inverters embedded in an integrated circuit (IC). The IC may contain an array of many thousands of spatially addressable electrodes. Control circuity may independently reverse the bias on any of the individual electrodes in the array. This provides fine-grained control of which polymers are released from the solid support. Examples of polymers that may be synthesized on this type of array include oligonucleotides and peptides.

Disclosed is a method of producing a two dimensional microarray using a three dimensional or structured microarray. The invention involves forming defined functionalized areas by layering an inert material over the surface structures of the three dimensional microarray. Sufficient of the inert material and of the top of the surface structures are then removed to expose defined areas of the surface structures within the inert material.

Microarray platforms and methods of fabricating said microarrays without traditional high aspect ratio barriers used to define individual array elements are described herein. Self-assembled nanoshells were stabilized with a polymerized scaffold to enhance the stability in physiological conditions and serve as an optical transducer upon molecular recognition events. Soft photolithography combined with surface chemistry was developed for covalent immobilization of nanoshells onto the pre-patterned arrayed microspots for rapid multiplexed detection of membrane-binding analytes. This robust fabrication methodology is amenable for general lipid structures, and thus facilitates the integration of stable membrane architectures into diagnostic and prognostic platforms. In particular, the microarray platform may be used in diverse applications ranging from the detection of pathogens, such bacterial toxin in biological matrices, to cellular membrane studies.

A method for immobilizing a compound of interest on the surface of a substrate in a given pattern using a printing pad. The printing pad is made from a polymer material with a face having a hollow profile that geometrically matches the pattern. The compound of interest is deposited on the surface of walls of a recess. A solution of a compound, capable of forming a link with the substrate and a link with the compound of interest, is confined inside the recess between the substrate and the face of the pad, in a solvent capable of penetrating into the polymer material. The confinement is carried out at a temperature and for a period sufficient to allow the solvent to penetrate the polymer material.