Methods for forming mixed droplets

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10155207-B2
Application number	US-201615171616-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 2, 2016
Priority date	Feb 11, 2011
Publication date	Dec 18, 2018
Grant date	Dec 18, 2018

Abstract

The invention generally relates to methods for forming mixed droplets. In certain embodiments, methods of the invention involve forming a droplet, and contacting the droplet with a fluid stream, wherein a portion of the fluid stream integrates with the droplet to form a mixed droplet.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for forming a mixed droplet, the method comprising:
forming a droplet of a first fluid;
flowing the droplet in a first channel, the first channel comprising a drop track, to steer the droplet toward a junction with a second channel and
contacting the droplet at the junction with a bolus of a fluid stream flowing in the second channel to cause a portion of the bolus to segment from the fluid stream and integrate with the droplet to form a mixed droplet, the mixed droplet formed without the presence of electric charge.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the fluid stream is delivered via a second channel that is perpendicular to the first channel.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the droplet of the first fluid is surrounded by an immiscible carrier fluid.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the mixed droplet is surrounded by an immiscible carrier fluid.

5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the immiscible carrier fluid is an oil.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the oil comprises a surfactant.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the surfactant is a fluorosurfactant.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating the forming, flowing and contacting steps to form a plurality of mixed droplets from a plurality of droplets of the first fluid, wherein the plurality of droplets of the first fluid are monodisperse.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drop track forces the droplet of the first fluid into a higher energy conformation.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bolus protrudes into a first stream comprising the droplet of the first fluid.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the drop track has a channel height smaller than the diameter of the droplet.

12. A method for forming a mixed droplet, the method comprising:
forming a droplet of a first fluid surrounded by an immiscible carrier fluid;
flowing the droplet through a first channel, the first channel comprising a drop track, to steer the droplet toward a junction with a second channel; and
contacting the droplet at the junction with a bolus of a fluid stream flowing in the second channel to cause a portion of the bolus to segment from the fluid stream and integrate with the droplet to form a mixed droplet, the mixed droplet formed without the presence of electric charge.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the drop track has a channel height smaller than the diameter of the droplet.

14. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the first and second channels are perpendicular to each other.

15. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the mixed droplet is also surrounded by the immiscible carrier fluid.

16. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the immiscible carrier fluid is an oil.

17. The method according to claim 16 , wherein the oil comprises a surfactant.

18. The method according to claim 17 , wherein the surfactant is a fluorosurfactant.

Assignees

• Bio Rad Laboratories

Inventors

• Yurkovetsky Yevgeny
• Link Darren R
• Larson Jonathan William

Classifications

• B01L7/525

  with physical movement of samples between temperature zones · CPC title

• B01F2215/0037

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01F5/0085

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01F3/0865

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B01L2300/0867

  Multiple inlets and one sample wells, e.g. mixing, dilution · CPC title