Device and system for collecting and analyzing vapor condensate, particularly exhaled breath condensate, as well as method of using the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10132794-B2
Application number	US-201615561014-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 14, 2016
Priority date	Sep 14, 2015
Publication date	Nov 20, 2018
Grant date	Nov 20, 2018

Abstract

The present invention is related to the field of bio/chemical sensing, assays and applications. Particularly, the present invention is related to collecting a small amount of a vapor condensate sample (e.g. the exhaled breath condensate (EBC) from a subject of a volume as small as 10 fL (femto-Liter) in a single drop), preventing or significantly reducing an evaporation of the collected vapor condensate sample, analyzing the sample, analyzing the sample by mobile-phone, and performing such collection and analysis by a person without any professionals.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A device for collecting and analyzing vapor condensate (VC) sample, comprising:
a collection plate and a cover plate, wherein:
i. the plates are movable relative to each other into different configurations;
ii. one or both plates are flexible;
iii. each of the plates has, on its respective surface, a sample contact area for contacting a vapor condensate (VC) sample that contains an analyte;
iv. one or both of the plates comprise spacers that are fixed with a respective plate, wherein the spacers have a predetermined substantially uniform height and a predetermined constant inter-spacer distance and wherein at least one of the spacers is inside the sample contact area;

wherein one of the configurations is an open configuration, in which: the two plates are either completely or partially separated apart, the spacing between the plates is not regulated by the spacers, and the VC sample is deposited on one or both of the plates; and
wherein another of the configurations is a closed configuration which is configured after the VC sample deposition in the open configuration; and in the closed configuration: at least a part of the VC sample is between the two plates and in contact with the two plates, and has a highly uniform thickness that is regulated by the spacers and the two sample surfaces of the plates and is equal to or less than 30 um with a small variation.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the device further comprises a dry reagent coated on one or both of the plates.

3. The device of claim 2 , wherein the dry binding site comprises a capture agent.

4. The device of claim 2 , wherein the dry binding site comprises an antibody or nucleic acid.

5. The device of claim 2 , wherein the releasable dry reagent is a cell stain.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the device further comprises, on one or both plates, a releasable dry reagent and a release time control material that delays the time that the releasable dry regent is released into the sample.

7. The device of claim 6 , wherein the releasable dry reagent is a labeled reagent.

8. The device of claim 6 , wherein the releasable dry reagent is a fluorescently labeled reagent.

9. The device of claim 6 , wherein the releasable dry reagent is a fluorescently labeled antibody.

10. The device of claim 1 , wherein the device further comprises, on one or both plates, a dry binding site that has a predetermined area, wherein the dry binding site binds to and immobilizes an analyte in the sample.

11. The device of claim 6 , wherein the release time control material delays the time that the dry regent starts to be released into the sample by at least 3 seconds.

12. The device of claim 1 , wherein the device further comprises, on one or both plates, one or a plurality of dry binding sites and/or one or a plurality of reagent sites.

13. The device of claim 1 , wherein the sample is exhale breath condensate.

14. The device of claim 1 , wherein the sample is a vapor from a biological sample, an environmental sample, a chemical sample, or a clinical sample.

15. The device of claim 1 , wherein the analyte comprises a molecule (e.g., a protein, peptides, DNA, RNA, nucleic acid, or other molecules), cells, tissues, viruses, or nanoparticles with different shapes.

16. The device of claim 1 , wherein the analyte comprises volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

17. The device of claim 1 , wherein the analyte comprises nitrogen, oxygen, CO 2 , H 2 O, or inert gases.

18. The device of claim 1 , wherein the analyte is stained.

19. The device of claim 1 , wherein on one of the surfaces that contacts the sample, it further comprises an enclosure-spacer that encloses a partial or entire VC sample deposited on the collection plate.

20. The device of claim 1 , wherein the highly uniform thickness has a value equal to or less than 0.5 um.

21. The device of claim 1 , wherein the highly uniform thickness has a value in the range of 0.5 um to 1 um.

22. The device of claim 1 , wherein the highly uniform thickness has a value in the range of 1 um to 2 um.

23. The device of claim 1 , wherein the highly uniform thickness has a value in the range of 2 um to 10 um.

24. The device of claim 1 , wherein the highly uniform thickness has a value in the range of 10 um to 20 um.

25. The device of claim 1 , wherein the highly uniform thickness has a value in the range of 20 um to 30 um.

26. The device of claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the at least a part of VC sample at the closed configuration is larger than the thickness of VC sample deposited on the collection plate at the open configuration.

27. The device of claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the at least a part of the VC sample at the closed configuration is less than the thickness of the VC sample deposited on the collection plate at the open configuration.

28. The device of claim 1 , wherein the spacers are fixed on a plate by directly embossing the plate or injection molding of the plate.

29. The device of claim 1 , wherein the materials of the plate and the spacers are selected from polystyrene, PMMA, PC, COC, COP, and another plastic.

30. The device of claim 1 , wherein the inter-spacer distance is in the range of 1 um to 200 um.

31. The device of claim 1 , wherein the inter-spacer distance is in the range of 200 um to 1000 um.

32. The device of claim 1 , wherein the VC sample is an exhaled breath condensate from a human or an animal.

33. The device of claim 1 , wherein the spacers regulating the layer of uniform thickness have a filling factor of at least 1%, wherein the filling factor is the ratio of the spacer area in contact with the layer of uniform thickness to the total plate area in contact with the layer of uniform thickness.

34. The device of claim 1 , wherein for spacers regulating the layer of uniform thickness, the Young's modulus of the spacers times the filling factor of the spacers is equal or larger than 10 MPa, wherein the filling factor is the ratio of the spacer area in contact with the layer of uniform thickness to the total plate area in contact with the layer of uniform thickness.

35. The device of claim 1 , wherein for a flexible plate, the thickness of the flexible plate times the Young's modulus of the flexible plate is in the range 60 to 750 GPa-um.

36. The device of claim 1 , wherein for a flexible plate, the fourth power of the interspacer-distance (ISD) divided by the thickness of the flexible plate (h) and the Young's modulus (E) of the flexible plate, ISD 4 /(hE), is equal to or less than 10 6 μm 3 /GPa.

37. The device of claim 1 , wherein one or both plates comprises a location marker, either on a surface of or inside the plate, that provides information of a location of the plate.

38. The device of claim 1 , wherein one or both plates comprises a scale marker, either on a surface of or inside the plate, that provides information of a lateral dimension of a structure of the sample and/or the plate.

39. The device of claim 1 , wherein one or both plates comprises an imaging marker, either on surface of or inside the plate, that assists imaging of the sample.

40. The device of claim 1 , wh

Assignees

• Essenlix Corp

Inventors

• Chou Stephen Y
• Ding Wei

Classifications

• G01N2021/0181

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• G01N2021/0118

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• G01N2015/1486

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• G01N2015/144

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• G01N2001/2276

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