Robust and rapid partitioning in thermoplastic.

Partitioning is the core technology supporting digital assays. It divides a sample into thousands of individual reactors prior to amplification and absolute quantification of target molecules. Thermoplastics are attractive materials for large scale manufacturing, however they have been seldomly used for fabricating partitioning arrays.

Widely accessible method for 3D microflow mapping at high spatial and temporal resolutions.

Advances in microfluidic technologies rely on engineered 3D flow patterns to manipulate samples at the microscale. However, current methods for mapping flows only provide limited 3D and temporal resolutions or require highly specialized optical set-ups. Here, we present a simple defocusing approach based on brightfield microscopy and open-source software to map micro-flows in 3D at high spatial and temporal resolution.

Multi-layering of SU-8 exhibits distinct geometrical transitions from circular to planarized profiles.

The negative tone photoresist SU-8 permits the creation of micrometer-scale structures by optical lithography. It is also the most used photoresist in soft lithography for the fast-prototyping of microfluidic devices. Despite its importance, the effect of capillary forces on SU-8 multi-layering onto topographical features has not been thoroughly studied.

dPCR: A Technology Review.

Digital Polymerase Chain Reaction (dPCR) is a novel method for the absolute quantification of target nucleic acids. Quantification by dPCR hinges on the fact that the random distribution of molecules in many partitions follows a Poisson distribution. Each partition acts as an individual PCR microreactor and partitions containing amplified target sequences are detected by fluorescence.

Deterministic trapping, encapsulation and retrieval of single-cells.

We present a novel method for conducting true single-cell encapsulation at very high efficiency for the manipulation of precious samples. Our unique strategy is based on the sequential capture and original encapsulation of single-cells into a series of hydrodynamic traps. We identified two distinct modes of encapsulation and we established their associated design rules.