Exclusive liquid repellency (ELR) describes an extreme wettability phenomenon in which a liquid phase droplet is completely repelled from a solid phase when exposed to a secondary immiscible liquid phase. Earlier, we developed a multi-liquid-phase open microfluidic (or underoil) system based on ELR to facilitate rare-cell culture and single-cell processing. The ELR system can allow for the handling of small volumes of liquid droplets with ultra-low sample loss and biofouling, which makes it an attractive platform for biological applications that require lossless manipulation of rare cellular samples (especially for a limited sample size in the range of a few hundred to a few thousand cells). Here, we report an automated platform using ELR microdrops for single-particle (or single-cell) isolation, identification, and retrieval. This was accomplished via the combined use of a robotic liquid handler, an automated microscopic imaging system, and real-time image-processing software for single-particle identification. The automated ELR technique enables rapid, hands-free, and robust isolation of microdrop-encapsulated rare cellular samples.

中文翻译：

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小排量单颗粒处理的自动化系统，具有独特的拒液性。

排斥排斥性（ELR）描述了一种极端的润湿性现象，其中，当暴露于第二种不混溶的液相时，液相液滴被固相完全排斥。早先，我们基于ELR开发了多液相开放微流体（或底油）系统，以促进稀有细胞培养和单细胞处理。ELR系统可以处理少量液滴，而样品损失和生物积垢极低，这使其成为需要无损处理稀有细胞样品的生物应用（特别是有限范围内的有限样品量）的有吸引力的平台几百到几千个细胞）。在这里，我们报告一个使用ELR微滴进行单颗粒（或单细胞）分离，鉴定和检索的自动化平台。这是通过结合使用机器人液体处理器，自动显微成像系统和用于单颗粒识别的实时图像处理软件来实现的。自动化的ELR技术可实现微滴封装的稀有细胞样品的快速，免提和可靠的分离。