FOCUSED ACOUSTIC ENERGY IN THE PREPARATION AND SCREENING OF COMBINATORIAL LIBRARIES

摘要

The present invention provides a method for the acoustic ejection of fluid droplets (49) from each of a plurality of fluid-containing reservoirs (13, 1 5) to prepare combinatorial libraries in the form of microarrays. An acoustic ejection device (11) is used comprised of a plurality of fluid reservoirs (1 3, 15), an ejector (33) for generating acoustic radiation and focusing the acoustic radiation generated at a focal point sufficiently near the fluid surface (17, 19) in each of the reservoirs (13, 15) such that a fluid drople t (49) is ejected therefrom toward a site on a substrate surface (51), and a means for positioning (43) the ejector (33) in acoustically coupled relationship to each of the reservoirs (13, 15). The combinatorial libraries may comprise biological or nonbiological moieties.