Cell & Enzyme Screening

Functional FACS

Cancer & Residual Disease Diagnosis

Antibody Engineering

Drug Formulation

Industrial Enzyme Development

Therapeutic Enzyme Development

On-chip Synthesis & Screening

RNAi Screening

Ethanol Development

Functional FACS (Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter)
PLS

RainDance Technologies (RDT) has combined droplet technology with microfluidics to enable a large number of analytical reactions (>105/min) to take place using extremely low volumes of drugs or reagents in microscopic NanoReactors™. The Professional Laboratory System™ (PLS) is an automated, compact fluid handling platform that provides the capability to assay and sort millions of samples based on the cells, bio-molecules or reaction products encapsulated in individual microdroplets. The result is a more functional FACS than has been available using traditional cell sorter technology. RDT works with strategic partners to accelerate development of this application based on the specific interests of its collaborators.

PLS Benefits

RDT’s ultra-sensitive, high throughput technology enables sorting protocols based on cell secretions and reaction products that are not possible using traditional fluorescence activated cell sorters. Due to RDT’s ability to encapsulate individual cells, enzymatic amplification is possible which allows for detection to be achieved with very few targets present. Instead of tagging a marker with a fluorescent entity, markers are bound with an enzyme that cleaves inert molecules into fluorescing compounds. Hence, even cells expressing very few markers will deliver a detectable signal that can be analyzed to estimate the number of markers present per droplet. The versatility of the PLS also allows for purified or translated proteins to be screened and sorted with the same efficiency as whole cells.

  • Test multiple conditions such as pH, conductivity, salt concentration, temperature and light
  • Droplet encapsulation of microbes allows screening for secreted target enzymes
  • Cells can be lysed within droplets to investigate full array of cellular material
  • Unique carrier oil allows for the encapsulation and growth of viable cells
  • Precise microdroplet sizing increases reagent concentrations to accelerate assay reactions
  • Picoliter size droplets significantly reduce reagent usage

PLS Features
Chips for enhanced optical sorting are configured using fluid management modules that control the continuous flow of thousands of individual NanoReactors™ per second.
  • Sample Loading -- The loading module injects emulsified libraries or newly formulated microdroplets containing molecules, proteins or cells of interest into the chip at very high speeds
  • Optical Readouts -- A variety of optical detection methods including fluorescence detection, fluorescence polarization, and light scattering can be used to screen and sort the NanoReactors™
  • Accurate Sorting -- 1000's of NanoReactors™ are sorted per second while maintaining an error rate of only ~.01%. Sorted droplets can be stored and taken off chip for further testing without leakage or cross-contamination due to proprietary surfactants and neutral charged droplets.
  • Real Time Statistics -- All microdroplets are volumetrically identical, stable, and can be tagged using a proprietary liquid labeling technique, allowing for quantitative experiments and online statistical analysis.

FFACS Schematics

Chip architecture for enhanced optical sorting