Assays and other reactions involving droplets
First Claim
1. A composition, comprising:
- a collection of hardened droplets comprising a library of distinguishable nucleic acid species, wherein a hardened droplet of said collection of hardened droplets comprises a nucleic acid species distinguishable from other nucleic acid species in other hardened droplets of said collection of hardened droplets, and wherein said collection of hardened droplets is contained within a plurality of aqueous droplets in a water-in-oil emulsion.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention generally relates to droplets and/or emulsions, such as multiple emulsions. In some cases, the droplets and/or emulsions may be used in assays, and in certain embodiments, the droplet or emulsion may be hardened to form a gel. In some aspects, a heterogeneous assay can be performed using a gel. For example, a droplet may be hardened to form a gel, where the droplet contains a cell, DNA, or other suitable species. The gel may be exposed to a reactant, and the reactant may interact with the gel and/or with the cell, DNA, etc., in some fashion. For example, the reactant may diffuse through the gel, or the hardened particle may liquefy to form a liquid state, allowing the reactant to interact with the cell. As a specific example, DNA contained within a gel particle may be subjected to PCR (polymerase chain reaction) amplification, e.g., by using PCR primers able to bind to the gel as it forms. As the DNA is amplified using PCR, some of the DNA will be bound to the gel via the PCR primer. After the PCR reaction, unbound DNA may be removed from the gel, e.g., via diffusion or washing. Thus, a gel particle having bound DNA may be formed in one embodiment of the invention.
159 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A composition, comprising:
a collection of hardened droplets comprising a library of distinguishable nucleic acid species, wherein a hardened droplet of said collection of hardened droplets comprises a nucleic acid species distinguishable from other nucleic acid species in other hardened droplets of said collection of hardened droplets, and wherein said collection of hardened droplets is contained within a plurality of aqueous droplets in a water-in-oil emulsion. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A composition, comprising:
a collection of gel particles comprising a plurality of nucleic acid primers, wherein said collection of gel particles is contained within a plurality of aqueous droplets in a water-in-oil emulsion. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A composition, comprising:
a plurality of gel particles contained within a plurality of aqueous droplets in a water-in-oil emulsion, wherein a gel particle of said plurality of gel particles comprises a nucleic acid species distinguishable from other nucleic acid species in other gel particles of said plurality of gel particles, and wherein said plurality of gel particles comprises at least 100,000 distinguishable species. - View Dependent Claims (30)
Specification