Manipulation of fluids, fluid components and reactions in microfluidic systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9068699-B2
Application number	US-201314070953-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 4, 2013
Priority date	Apr 19, 2007
Publication date	Jun 30, 2015
Grant date	Jun 30, 2015

Abstract

Microfluidic structures and methods for manipulating fluids, fluid components, and reactions are provided. In one aspect, such structures and methods can allow production of droplets of a precise volume, which can be stored/maintained at precise regions of the device. In another aspect, microfluidic structures and methods described herein are designed for containing and positioning components in an arrangement such that the components can be manipulated and then tracked even after manipulation. For example, cells may be constrained in an arrangement in microfluidic structures described herein to facilitate tracking during their growth and/or after they multiply.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for partitioning a fluid, comprising the steps of:
(a) providing a microfluidic network comprising a first fluid channel and a second fluid channel, wherein hydrodynamic resistance in the second fluid channel is lower than hydrodynamic resistance in the first fluid channel and wherein the first fluid channel and the second fluid channel are in fluid communication with a first region;
(b) flowing a first fluid through the first fluid channel, the f…

Assignees

• Univ Brandeis
• Harvard College

Inventors

• Fraden Seth
• Boukellal Hakim
• Jia Yanwei
• Selimovic Seila
• Rowat Amy
• Agresti Jeremy
• Weitz David A

Classifications

• Y10T137/0391

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• G01N1/28

  Physics · mapped topic

• Y10T137/218

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• B01L3/502784 Primary

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• G01N15/0272

  Physics · mapped topic