BACKGROUND Multiple locus sequence typing (MLST) has become a central genotyping strategy for analysis of bacterial populations. The scheme involves de novo sequencing of 6-8 housekeeping loci to assign unique sequence types. In this work we adapted MLST to a rapid microfluidics platform in order to enhance speed and reduce laboratory labor time. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Using two integ...

Microelectrodes enable localized electrical stimulation and recording, and they have revolutionized our understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of systems that generate or respond to electrical signals. However, such comprehensive understanding of systems that rely on molecular signals-e.g., chemical communication in multicellular neural, developmental, or immune systems-remains elusive be...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has committed to issuing in 2012 new or revised criteria designed to protect the health of those who use surface waters for recreation. For this purpose, the U.S. EPA has been conducting epidemiologic studies to establish relationships between microbial measures of water quality and adverse health outcomes among swimmers. New methods for testing wa...

The simultaneous investigation of a large number of events with different types of intermolecular interactions, from nonequilibrium high-force pulling assays to quasi-equilibrium unbinding events in the same environment, can be very important for fully understanding intermolecular bond-rupture mechanisms. Here, we describe a novel dielectrophoretic force spectroscopy technique that utilizes mic...

As the development of life science and biomedical science, the detection of biomolecules with low abundance and the acquisition of ultra weak biological signals have been become a bottleneck of these fields. Therefore, developing high sensitive analytical methods coupling with the specificity of biological recognition evens is in urgent need [1]. However, owing to the inherent background signal...

Loading drops with discrete objects, such as particles and cells, is often necessary when performing chemical and biological assays in microfluidic devices. However, random loading techniques are inefficient, yielding a majority of empty and unusable drops. We use deformable particles that are close packed to insert a controllable number of particles into every drop. This provides a simple, fle...

Dynamic combinatorial chemistry (DCC) has emerged as a powerful strategy to identify ligands for biological targets given that it enables the target to direct the synthesis and amplification of its strongest binder(s) from the library of interconverting compounds. Since the first report of DCC applied to the discovery of binders for a protein, this elegant tool has been employed on a range of p...

The application of microfluidic devices for DNA amplification has recently been extensively studied. Here, we review the important development of microfluidic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) devices and discuss the underlying physical principles for the optimal design and operation of the device. In particular, we focus on continuous-flow microfluidic PCR on-chip, which can be readily implement...

A microfluidic based device has been developed for the continuous separation of polymer microspheres, taking advantage of the flow characteristics of systems. The chip consists of an asymmetric cavity with variable channel width which enables continuous amplification of the particle separation for different size particles within the laminar flow profile. The process has been examined by varying...

Many researches on how price bundling affects bundle purchasing in the marketing field have been discussed, but an analytic evaluation of customer value offered by product bundles is still lacking. By combining „Delphi method‟, „Fuzzy analytical network process‟ (FANP) and „Extent analysis‟, an integrated decision making method has developed and applied in evaluating cosmetic bundles. Based on ...