Assays and other reactions involving droplets
First Claim
1. A method of amplification comprising:
- a. generating a first plurality of droplets comprising polynucleotide primers, wherein the first plurality of droplets excludes polynucleotides to be amplified;
b. generating a second plurality of droplets comprising polynucleotides to be amplified, wherein the polynucleotides are obtained from a whole genome;
c. merging first droplets of the first plurality of droplets with second droplets of the second plurality of droplets to form coalesced droplets; and
d. performing amplification reactions on the polynucleotides in the coalesced droplets to form amplicons.
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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.
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Citations
39 Claims
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1. A method of amplification comprising:
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a. generating a first plurality of droplets comprising polynucleotide primers, wherein the first plurality of droplets excludes polynucleotides to be amplified; b. generating a second plurality of droplets comprising polynucleotides to be amplified, wherein the polynucleotides are obtained from a whole genome; c. merging first droplets of the first plurality of droplets with second droplets of the second plurality of droplets to form coalesced droplets; and d. performing amplification reactions on the polynucleotides in the coalesced droplets to form amplicons. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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Specification