Microfluidic Analysis System
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Accused Products
Abstract
A thermal cycling device (3) device a number of fixed thermal zones (11, 12, 13) and a fixed conduit (10) passing through the thermal zones. A controller maintains each thermal zone including its section of conduit (10) at a constant temperature. A series of droplets flows through the conduit (10) so that each droplet is thermally cycled, and a detection system detects fluorescence from droplets at all of the thermal cycles. The conduit is in a single plane, and so a number of thermal cycling devices may be arranged together to achieve parallelism. The flow conduit comprises a channel (17) and a capillary tube (10) inserted into the channel. The detection system may perform scans along a direction to detect radiation from a plurality of cycles in a pass.
92 Citations
63 Claims
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1-23. -23. (canceled)
- 24. A microfluidic analysis system comprising a thermal cycling device, the device having a plurality of fixed thermal zones and a fixed conduit passing through the thermal zones, a controller for maintaining each thermal zone including its section of the conduit at a constant temperature, a pumping system for flowing a series of droplets through the conduit so that each droplet is thermally cycled, and a detection system for detecting electromagnetic radiation from droplets at a plurality of said thermal cycles.
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50. A method of performing a nucleic acid amplification reaction, the method comprising:
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a) providing a biological sample; b) segmenting the sample into droplets which are wrapped in an immiscible oil; c) directing the flow of the droplets in oil though a conduit passing through a plurality of thermal zones under conditions sufficient for the amplification reaction to occur; and d) detecting an output of the amplification reaction in one or more droplets. - View Dependent Claims (51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57)
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61. A method of performing a nucleic acid amplification reaction, the method comprising:
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a) creating a flow of spherical droplets of sample contained in an immiscible carrier fluid; b) passing the flow through a circular tubing in a thermal cycler; c) controlling three thermal zones in said thermal cycler; d) controlling the carrier fluid velocity by an external pumping system; e) passing the sample through the thermal zones allowing the nucleic acid amplification reaction to occur in the droplets; f) optionally, repeating step e); and g) detecting of the amplification reaction. - View Dependent Claims (62, 63)
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Specification