Abstract:
The present invention is directed generally to devices and methods for controlling fluid flow in meso-scale fluidic components in a programmable manner. Specifically, the present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for placing two microfluidic components in fluid communication at an arbitrary position and time, both of which are externally defined. The inventive apparatus uses electromagnetic radiation to perforate a material layer having selected adsorptive properties. The perforation of the material layer allows the fluid communication between microfluidic components allowing volumetric quantitation of fluids. Using the perforation of the material functionality such as metering and multiplexing are achieved on a microscale. This functionality is achieved through basic operations, like dosimeters filling, dosimeters purging, dosimeters extraction, dosimeters ventilation and channels routing. Accordingly, these operations are performed in microfluidic platforms and are characterized extensively, allowing the realization of complex assays in a miniaturized format, where dilutions of proteins and assay readout can be performed in an extremely small footprint.
Abstract:
A fluidic tile having a first substrate containing macrofluidic structures bonded to a second substrate containing microfluidic structures. The microfluidic structures correspond to the macrofluidic structures in the first substrate and provide fluid flow paths between the macrofluidic structures. One of the microfluidic structures is a washing siphon that provides a fluid flow path between a purification chamber and a waste chamber. The washing siphon is configured to be primed when a volume of liquid in the purification chamber exceeds a predetermined amount causing the washing siphon to initiate transfer of the liquid in the purification chamber to the waste chamber when the volume of the liquid in the purification chamber exceeds the predetermined amount.
Abstract:
The novel use of isostatic pressing or high energy rate forming in the production of high precision, multi-component devices for a variety of applications including, but not limited to, the domains of microfluidics, microtechnology, medical devices, biotechnology, life sciences and engineering. The high precision of said devices is not necessarily related to the dimensional accuracy of the device itself, although this could be a feature, but rather to the precision of the alignment of the sub-components with respect to each other in the final device. This production process has numerous advantages, including low recurring manufacturing costs, high throughput, large production capacity, homogeneous product quality and ease of process control.
Abstract:
The present invention is directed generally to devices and methods with the purpose of interfacing microfluidic devices with dispensing and fluid handling systems. Specifically, the present invention consists in the design of the inlets of a microfluidic device in such a way that multiple units can be loaded as a single compact device, with a unitary interface format which is compatible with existing industry standards.
Abstract:
The present disclosure is directed generally to devices and methods with the purpose of interfacing micro fluidic devices with dispensing and fluid handling systems to achieve the rapid identification of protein crystallization conditions. The device described herein is fabricated with the use of a cyclic olefin homopolymer-based creating microfluidics system adaptable for protein crystallization and in situ X-ray diffraction. Connectivity between chambers is controlled by valves that allow specified volumes of liquid to be transferred from one chamber to another. The microfluidic system is useful to established microbatch, vapor diffusion and free interface diffusion protocols for protein crystallization and to obtain crystals for a number of proteins, including chicken lysozyme, bovine trypsin, a human p53 protein containing both the DNA binding and oligomerization domains bound to DNA and a functionally important domain of Arabidopsis Morpheus' Molecule 1 (MOMl). For X-ray diffraction analysis, either the microfluidic devices were opened to allow mounting of the crystals on loops or the crystals were exposed to X-rays in situ. Thus, cyclic olefin homopolymer-based microfluidics systems are useful to further automate protein crystallization and structural genomics efforts.
Abstract:
The present invention is directed generally to devices and methods for controlling fluid flow in meso-scale fluidic components in a programmable manner. Specifically, the present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for placing two microfluidic components in fluid communication at an arbitrary position and time, both of which are externally defined. The inventive apparatus uses electromagnetic radiation to perforate a material layer having selected adsorptive properties. The perforation of the material layer allows the fluid communication between microfluidic components. Other aspects of this invention include an apparatus and method to perform volumetric quantitation of fluids, an apparatus to program arbitrary connections between a set of input capillaries and a set of output capillaries, and a method to transport fluid in centripetal device from a larger to a smaller radius. In addition, the present invention also is directed to a method to determine the radial and polar position of a pickup in the reference frame of a rotating device.