Microfluidic devices
Inventors
Link, Darren Roy • Weiner, Michael • Marran, David • Rothberg, Jonathan M.
Assignees
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Publication Number
US-12337287-B2
Publication Date
2025-06-24
Expiration Date
Abstract
The present invention provides novel microfluidic substrates and methods that are useful for performing biological, chemical and diagnostic assays. The substrates can include a plurality of electrically addressable, channel bearing fluidic modules integrally arranged such that a continuous channel is provided for flow of immiscible fluids.
Core Innovation
The disclosed technology relates to droplet-based microfluidic chemical and biological processing using microfluidic substrates and integrated modules for high-throughput, droplet-based assays. Monodisperse droplets are generated by an inlet module and a flow-focusing nozzle, and the system handles immiscible carrier fluids with downstream droplet processing through electrically addressable and modular functions.
The integrated modules include an electrically addressable coalescence module and a dielectric droplet sorting module, with detection and collection or waste provided by dedicated detection modules. Additional modules include delay, heating/cooling, mixing, and UV-release of a photoreleased component, and the device concepts include elastomer molding and bonding, anti-wetting or blocking coatings, and self-aligning fluidic interconnects.
The disclosure also describes chemical synthesis on beads with subsequent release of synthesized chemistry into droplets in a droplet-based environment. After release, the technology enables droplet merging with cell-containing droplets for cell-based assays, and the document further describes droplet sorting including bead identification based on a mass spectroscopy approach using a mass spec tag.
Documented examples span droplet assay workflows with optical and electrical detection, fluorescence polarization coding, droplet library concepts, and droplet-based processing connected to sequencing or PCR-like workflows in nano/microfluidic formats.
Claims Coverage
Not explicitly described in patent.
Not explicitly described in patent.
Stated Advantages
Not explicitly described in patent.
Documented Applications
Microfluidic droplet library generation with deterministic lateral displacement using monodisperse droplets.
On-bead chemical synthesis followed by droplet release into droplets and use in cell-based assays via droplet merging.
Droplet PCR and sequencing workflows.
Isothermal amplification workflows including SNP workflows, including described SNP-related mitigation involving modified primers.
RNAi screening workflows.
Lentiviral library workflows, including use of a barcode.
Karyotyping workflows including spectral karyotyping (SKY).
Enzyme screening workflows.
Genomics/biology assay frameworks, including enzyme screening and biomass conversion, as described within broader microfluidic assay/topology concepts.
Droplet assay workflows with optical and electrical detection.
Droplet or bio-entity labeling using fluorescence polarization coding.
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