University of Notre Dame Du Lac

Intel Corporation

Other

David B Go

Hsueh-Chia Chang

Rajiv K Mongia

Satyajyoti Senapati

Mark Angus MacDonald

Michael J Johnson

Timothy Scott Fisher

Suresh V Garimella

Massood Zandi Atashbar

Zdenek Slouka

Zehao Pan

Steven Marczak

Zeinab Ramshani

Reginald Hill

Yongfan Men

Nishant Chetwani

Catherine Cassou

The invention provides an alternating current electrospray technology that can generate micron sized droplets in oil at very high throughput for emulsion or digital PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction). This technology outperforms the throughput of the current gold standard in droplet generation using flow-focusing technology by at least a factor of 100. The design is simple and can generate a billion to a trillion monodispersed droplets in about one hour. This is much faster than flow-focusing which is limited to a few million droplets per hour. The droplet size and generation rate can also be easily adjusted by changing the voltage of the AC electric field. The range of produced droplet sizes is about 1-100 microns, wherein the droplets are monodispersed in size.

AC electrosprayed droplets for digital and emulsion PCR

Exosomes carry microRNA biomarkers, occur in higher abundance in cancerous patients than in healthy ones, and because they are present in most biofluids, including blood and urine, can be obtained non-invasively. Standard laboratory techniques to isolate exosomes are expensive, time-consuming, provide poor purity, and recover on the order of 25% of the available exosomes. We present a new microfluidic technique to simultaneously isolate exosomes and preconcentrate them by electrophoresis using a high transverse local electric field generated by ion-depleting ion-selective membrane. We use pressure-driven flow to deliver an exosome sample to a microfluidic chip such that the transverse electric field forces them out of the cross flow and into an agarose gel which filters out unwanted cellular debris while the ion-selective membrane concentrates the exosomes through an enrichment effect. We efficiently isolated exosomes from 1&#xd7;PBS buffer, cell culture media and blood serum. Using flow rates from 150 &#x3bc;L/hr to 200 &#x3bc;L/hr and field strengths of 100 V/cm, we consistently captured between 60% to 80% of exosomes from buffer, cell culture media, and blood serum as confirmed by both fluorescence spectroscopy and nanoparticle tracking analysis. Our microfluidic chip maintained this recovery rate for more than twenty minutes with a concentration factor of 15 for ten minutes of isolation.

Simultaneous isolation and preconcentration of exosomes by ion concentration polarization method and apparatus

Various apparatus and methods for the atomization of fluid are disclosed herein. In one aspect, an apparatus for atomization of fluid includes a piezoelectric transformer comprising an electrode which is in communication a source of alternating current (AC) voltage at a proximate end of the piezoelectric transformer. A wick which is capable of absorbing a liquid is in contact with the piezoelectric transformer at the distal end, and the piezoelectric transformer is capable of inducing an electrospray of the liquid at the distal end.

Apparatus and method for atomization of fluid

An alternating current electrospray mass spectrometry device includes an electrospray device having at least one emitter providing a passageway for transmission of an analyte sample. At least one conductive element is in electrical communication with the at least one emitter. A power source generates an alternating current electric field to form a liquid cone at a tip of the emitter and ionizes the analyte sample present in the liquid cone. The frequency of the electric field entrains low mobility ions in the liquid cone. The AC electric field causes the emitter to discharge the liquid cone as a liquid aerosol drop, and a mass spectrometry device analyzes the ionized analyte sample to determine the composition of the contained analyte sample.

Methods and apparatus for mass spectrometry utilizing an AC electrospray device

A flow tube apparatus may include a flow tube having a first opening and a second opening, a corona electrode provided in the flow tube, a collecting electrode provided in the flow tube, and at least one focusing electrode provided in the flow tube to guide ions and thereby provide an ionic wind. In at least one embodiment, the flow tube apparatus may be provided in an electronic apparatus to provide an air flow.

Flow tube apparatus

A method, apparatus, and system are described for an ionic wind generator. The ionic wind generator may have a first electrode that is elevated off a surface of a device that the ionic wind generator is intended to cool. A first surface of the first electrode is in contact with a first surface of a first post that elevates the first electrode off the surface of the device that the ionic wind generator is intended to cool. The ionic wind generator causes a generation of ions that are then drawn through an interstitial atmosphere from the first electrode to a second electrode to affect a velocity of local flow over the surface of the device between the first electrode and the second electrode. The flow from a forced flow device also affects the velocity of local flow over the surface of the device between the first electrode and the second electrode.

Various methods, apparatuses, and systems that use ionic wind to affect heat transfer

Growing community of inventors

South Bend, IN, United States of America

David B Go