DIGITAL MICROFLUIDIC (DMF) SYSTEM, DMF CARTRIDGE, AND METHOD INCLUDING INTEGRATED OPTICAL FIBER SENSING

1 . (canceled)

2 . A cartridge for use with an instrument, the cartridge comprising:

a digital microfluidics substrate comprising a plurality of electrowetting electrodes operative to perform droplet operations on a liquid droplet in a droplet operations gap;

a top plate separated from the digital microfluidics substrate to form a droplet operations gap and comprising openings for flowing liquids into the droplet operations gap; and

a fiber assembly comprising a fiber optic probe projecting into the droplet operations gap and having a sensing end situated in proximity with one or more of the electrowetting electrodes.

3 . The cartridge of claim 2 , wherein a fiber optic probe projecting into the droplet operations gap is situated in proximity with a set of two or more of the electrowetting electrodes such that a droplet situated atop any electrode of the set of two or more electrodes will contact the fiber optic probe.

4 . The cartridge of claim 2 , wherein the probe comprises a ligand.

5 . The cartridge of claim 2 , further comprising:

a droplet controllable by the electrowetting electrodes to contact the fiber optic probe.

6 . (canceled)

7 . The cartridge of claim 2 , wherein the top plate comprises two or more grooves or openings each aligning a fiber optic probe from the fiber assembly.

8 . The cartridge of claim 2 , wherein the sensing end comprises a nanoparticle sensor surface.

9 . A method of conducting an assay, comprising:

providing a fiber optic probe comprising a ligand;

providing a droplet having a volume which is less than about 1000 nL and comprising an analyte potentially having an affinity for the ligand; and

contacting the droplet with the end of the probe and oscillating the droplet without removing the droplet from contact with the probe.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the oscillation ranges from about 0.5 to about 15 Hz.

11 . (canceled)

12 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the droplet has a volume which is less than about 900 nL.

13 .- 17 . (canceled)

18 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

measuring a signal from the droplet via the fiber optic probe and using a computer to calculate a response curve from the signal.

19 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the fiber optic probe comprises multiple ligands and the droplet comprises multiple analytes.

20 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the providing operation further comprises providing multiple fiber optic probes and multiple droplets and contacting each of the multiple droplets with a corresponding fiber optic probe and oscillating each of the multiple droplets in contact with the corresponding fiber optic probe.

21 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the oscillation is mediated by electrowetting electrodes.

22 .- 23 . (canceled)

24 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the oscillation is mediated by electrowetting electrodes in a droplet operations gap of a digital microfluidics (DMF) cartridge.

25 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the oscillation is substantially at a right angle to a line extending along a length of the fiber optic probe.

26 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the oscillation is substantially in line with a line extending along a length of the fiber optic probe.

27 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the oscillation is multidirectional.

28 . (canceled)

29 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the oscillation is conducted using an elongated droplet.

30 .- 31 . (canceled)

32 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the assay is selected from the following: molecular library screening assays, binding kinetics assays, affinity determination assays, binding site mapping assays, thermodynamics studies, sandwich assays, competition analysis assays, specificity determination assays, and characterizations of antibody binding, and combinations thereof.

33 . A DMF system, the system comprising:

a cartridge, comprising:

digital microfluidics comprising a plurality of electrowetting electrodes operative to perform droplet operations on a liquid droplet in a droplet operations gap, and

a fiber optic probe projecting into the droplet operations gap into proximity with a set of two or more of the electrowetting electrodes such that a droplet situated atop any electrode of the set of two or more electrodes will contact the fiber optic probe;

a controller operationally coupled to the electrowetting electrodes and the fiber optic probe;

an illumination source arranged to illuminate one or more droplets in the droplet operations gap; and

an optical measurement device optically coupled to the fiber optic probe and arranged to receive signal from the fiber optic probe.

34 .- 47 . (canceled)