An electric field stirring apparatus, in which a droplet as a liquid disposed between a first electrode and a second electrode disposed to face each other is vibrated and stirred by an electric field generated between the first electrode and the second electrode, the second electrode having a groove formed along a first direction on an electrode surface facing the first electrode, includes a movement mechanism that reciprocally moves the first electrode relative to the second electrode in a second direction intersecting the first direction in a state in which the first electrode and the second electrode face each other during a period in which the electric field is generated.

The present disclosure provides a microchannel device including a first base having a defining surface that defines a flow channel and containing a polymer that contains a fluorine atom and a second base having a defining surface that defines the flow channel together with the defining surface of the first base, having solvent resistance, and coming into contact with the first base, in which an arithmetic average roughness Ra of a surface of the first base, exposed by peeling the second base from the first base, is 1 μm or more, and provides a use application thereof.

Devices, systems, and their methods of use, for generating droplets are provided. One or more geometric parameters of a microfluidic channel can be selected to generate droplets of a desired and predictable droplet size.

Various aspects of the present invention relate to the control and manipulation of fluidic species, for example, in microfluidic systems. In one aspect, the invention relates to systems and methods for making droplets of fluid surrounded by a liquid, using, for example, electric fields, mechanical alterations, the addition of an intervening fluid, etc. In another aspect, the invention relates to systems and methods for dividing a fluidic droplet into two droplets, for example, through charge and/or dipole interactions with an electric field. The invention also relates to systems and methods for fusing droplets, according to another aspect of the invention, for example, through charge and/or dipole interactions. Another aspect of the invention provides the ability to determine droplets, or a component thereof, for example, using fluorescence and/or other optical techniques (e.g., microscopy), or electric sensing techniques such as dielectric sensing.

The invention generally relates to methods for quantifying an amount of enzyme molecules. Systems and methods of the invention are provided for measuring an amount of target by forming a plurality of fluid partitions, a subset of which include the target, performing an enzyme-catalyzed reaction in the subset, and detecting the number of partitions in the subset. The amount of target can be determined based on the detected number.

An apparatus for generating one or several droplets of a first liquid in a second liquid immiscible with the first liquid includes a rotational body and a drive apparatus. The rotational body includes a fluid chamber, a fluid channel and a transition area. The transition area includes a first expansion area and a second expansion area. The drive apparatus is configured to provide the rotational body with such a rotation that the first liquid is supplied centrifugally to the fluid chamber and that centrifugally hydrodynamically induced pressure and lifting forces are caused due to the second expansion area, which cause a droplet break-off in the first liquid, such that a droplet of the first liquid embedded in the second liquid is generated.

Disclosed are devices and methods useful for confined-channel digital microfluidics that combine high-throughput droplet generators with digital microfluidic for droplet manipulation. The present disclosure also provides an off-chip sensing system for droplet tracking.

The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for the control of fluids and, in some cases, to systems and methods for flowing a fluid into and/or out of other fluids. As examples, fluid may be injected into a droplet contained within a fluidic channel, or a fluid may be injected into a fluidic channel to create a droplet. In some embodiments, electrodes may be used to apply an electric field to one or more fluidic channels, e.g., proximate an intersection of at least two fluidic channels. For instance, a first fluid may be urged into and/or out of a second fluid, facilitated by the electric field. The electric field, in some cases, may disrupt an interface between a first fluid and at least one other fluid. Properties such as the volume, flow rate, etc. of a first fluid being urged into and/or out of a second fluid can be controlled by controlling various properties of the fluid and/or a fluidic droplet, for example curvature of the fluidic droplet, and/or controlling the applied electric field.

The present invention relates to droplet-based surface modification and washing. According to one embodiment, a method of splitting a droplet is provided, the method including providing a droplet microactuator including a droplet including one or more beads and immobilizing at least one of the one or more beads. The method further includes conducting one or more droplet operations to divide the droplet to yield a set of droplets including a droplet including the one or more immobilized beads and a droplet substantially lacking the one or more immobilized beads.

Microfluidic methods for barcoding nucleic acid target molecules to be analyzed, e.g., via nucleic acid sequencing techniques, are provided. Also provided are microfluidic, droplet-based methods of preparing nucleic acid barcodes for use in various barcoding applications. The methods described herein facilitate high-throughput sequencing of nucleic acid target molecules as well as single cell and single virus genomic, transcriptomic, and/or proteomic analysis/profiling. Systems and devices for practicing the subject methods are also provided.