Microfluidic determination of immune and other cells

Abstract

The present invention generally relates to fluidic droplets and systems and methods for determining immune or other cells. Some aspects of the invention are generally directed to assays that combine sensitive detection of secreted products with detection of target cell death in droplets containing an effector cell, systems and methods to isolate droplets in which one or more cell interactions have occurred, or systems and methods to generate nucleic acid information from cell interactions. In addition, some embodiments of the invention are generally directed to containing two (or more) cells in droplets, e.g., an effector cell and one or more target cells, and determining various interactions between the cells within the droplets, such as whether the effector cell kills the target cell, whether the effector cell releases antibodies, cytokines or other substances that are able to interact with the target cell or are released in the presence of the target cell, or the like.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.