申请人:President and Fellows of Harvard College
公开号:EP2662136A2
公开(公告)日:2013-11-13
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 some cases, the droplets may each have a substantially uniform number of entities therein. For example, 95% or more of the droplets may each contain the same number of entities of a particular species. 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. In some cases, the fusion of the droplets may initiate or determine a reaction. In a related aspect of the invention, systems and methods for allowing fluid mixing within droplets to occur are also provided. In still another aspect, the invention relates to systems and methods for sorting droplets, e.g., by causing droplets to move to certain regions within a fluidic system. Examples include using electrical interactions (e.g., charges, dipoles etc.) or mechanical systems (e.g., fluid displacement) to sort the droplets. In some cases, the fluidic droplets can be sorted at relatively high rates, e.g., at about 10 droplets per second or more. 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.
本发明的各个方面涉及流体种类的控制和操纵,例如在微流体系统中。在一个方面,本发明涉及利用电场、机械改变、添加中间流体等方法制造被液体包围的液滴的系统和方法。在某些情况下,液滴中每个实体的数量基本一致。例如,95% 或更多的液滴可能各自含有相同数量的特定种类的实体。在另一方面,本发明涉及将流体液滴分成两个液滴的系统和方法,例如,通过电荷和/或偶极子与电场的相互作用。本发明还涉及根据本发明的另一方面,例如通过电荷和/或偶极子相互作用将液滴融合的系统和方法。在某些情况下,液滴的融合可引发或决定反应。在本发明的一个相关方面,还提供了允许液滴内发生流体混合的系统和方法。在另一个方面,本发明涉及用于分选液滴的系统和方法,例如,通过使液滴移动到流体系统内的某些区域。例子包括使用电相互作用(如电荷、偶极子等)或机械系统(如流体位移)来分选液滴。在某些情况下,流体液滴可以相对较高的速度分选,例如每秒分选约 10 个液滴或更多。本发明的另一方面提供了确定液滴或其组分的能力,例如,使用荧光和/或其他光学技术(如显微镜),或电传感技术(如介电传感)。