Overview

We encapsulate single cells or antibody candidates together with antigen-conjugated beads in picoliter-scale droplets, incubate, then read each droplet’s fluorescence signal before sorting. Because every droplet is an isolated micro-reactor, we can detect secreted and intracellular targets that surface-only methods like flow cytometry miss. Sorting uses ultra-low dielectrophoretic (DEP) force to keep cells viable for downstream culture, and the system is UV-sterilized between runs to rule out cross-contamination between samples.

How it works

• Droplet encapsulation. Cells, beads, and reagents are encapsulated into single- or dual-phase aqueous droplets at 1,000–10,000 droplets per second, with droplet size customizable from 20–100 μm depending on assay needs.
• Incubation. Droplets are incubated off-instrument, then reloaded for reading — with optional droplet fusion for assays that need a second reagent added after encapsulation.
• Reading and sorting. Up to four lasers and five simultaneous detection channels read each droplet’s fluorescence signal; positive droplets are sorted out at up to 1,500 droplets per second, with better than 95% sorting purity.
• Recovery. Sorted droplets are recovered either as a bulk collection or dispensed directly into 96- or 384-well plates (about 15 minutes per 96-well plate) for whatever validation step comes next.

Technical parameters

Parameter	Value
Laser configuration	Up to 4 lasers, configurable
Detection channels	Up to 5 simultaneous
Droplet diameter	20 – 100 μm, customizable
Droplet generation speed	1,000 – 10,000 droplets/second
Sorting speed	1 – 1,500 droplets/second
Sorting throughput	10¹ – 10⁷ droplets per run
Sorting purity	>95%
Recovery modes	Bulk collection, or 96/384-well plate dispensing (~15 min per 96-well plate)
Instrument footprint	82 × 56 × 50 cm

Figures reflect the droplet microfluidic platform’s demonstrated instrument performance. Turnaround time and cell/sample numbers for your specific study depend on assay design — we’ll confirm both during scoping.

Where high throughput matters most

Antibody screening campaigns vary enormously in how rare your target cells actually are within the starting sample. Against a well-immunized animal and a straightforward protein antigen, positive rates can be high enough that a modest cell count already turns up plenty of candidates — throughput is a nice-to-have. Against harder targets, it stops being a convenience and starts being the difference between a usable hit list and an empty plate:

• Transmembrane and GPCR targets — native conformation and low antigen density typically push positive rates well below what soluble-protein campaigns see.
• Broad-spectrum or cross-reactive antibody discovery — finding rare clones that bind conserved epitopes across strains or species.
• Human donor-derived samples — without the option to boost immunization as in animal models, the antigen-specific fraction is often intrinsically low.

We also run functional microbial and enzyme screening on the same underlying platform — enriching rare positive variants from large libraries based on functional readouts.