Droplet creation techniques
AssigneePresident and Fellows of Harvard College
InventorsDavid A. Weitz, Adam R. Abate
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention is generally related to systems and methods for producing droplets. The droplets may contain varying species, e.g., for use as a library. In some cases, at least one droplet is used to create a plurality of droplets, using techniques such as flow-focusing techniques. In one set of embodiments, a plurality of droplets, containing varying species, can be divided to form a collection of droplets containing the various species therein. A collection of droplets, according to certain embodiments, may contain various subpopulations of droplets that all contain the same species therein. Such a collection of droplets may be used as a library in some cases, or may be used for other purposes.
Claims20
A method for forming a plurality of droplets, comprising:
- providing at least one droplet comprising a first fluid substantially surrounded by a second fluid;
- and
- passing the at least one droplet through a microfluidic channel to form a plurality of divided droplets.
An article, comprising:
- a fluid containing a plurality of droplets, at least some of which have distinguishable compositions;
- and
- a flow-focusing device able to produce divided droplets using the plurality of droplets contained within the fluid, the produced divided droplets having a distribution of diameters such that no more than about 5% of the droplets have a diameter greater than about 10% of the average diameter of the droplets.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.