Abstract: The present invention is directed to optical bio-discs, methods, and optical disc drives for clinical diagnostics. The present invention is further directed to methods for determining the quantity of a specific type of blood cell in a biological sample including on-disc sample preparation and processing, providing a pre-processed sample onto a capture zone, removing portions of the sample that are not bound in the capture zone, and counting bound cells. Also disclosed are fluidic circuits for processing blood samples for use in a cluster designation marker assay in the optical bio-disc.

Abstract: The present invention relates in general to molecular and cellular biomagnetic assays and, in particular, to molecular and cellular biomagnetic assays conducted on magneto-optical bio-discs. The invention further relates to magneto-optical bio-disc systems including the magneto-optical bio-discs and MO drives. More specifically, but without restriction to the particular embodiments hereinafter described in accordance with the best mode of practice, this invention relates to biomagnetic methods, including immunomagnetic methods, for detection and selective manipulation of specific target cells in cell populations and solutions of cell populations, using magnetic particles or beads, and to magnetically guided neurite growth, nerve regeneration, and magnetically formed neural networks using the MOBDS.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to optical bio-discs, methods, and optical disc drives for clinical diagnostics. The present invention is further directed to methods for determining the quantity of a specific type of blood cell in a biological sample including on-disc sample preparation and processing, providing a pre-processed sample onto a capture zone, removing portions of the sample that are not bound in the capture zone, and counting bound cells. Also disclosed are fluidic circuits for processing blood samples for use in a cluster designation marker assay in the optical bio-disc.

Abstract: The present invention relates to methods and systems for the detection of specific sequences of nucleic acids or oligonucleotides. It relates more particularly to a conjugated enzyme based assay system utilizing reflective and/or transmissive optical bio-discs for detection of specific sequences of nucleic acids. In the assay according to the present invention, an enzyme reaction is used to detect the presence of an analyte (DNA or RNA) in a microchannel in an optical bio-disc. The analyte is immobilized by hybridization with a specific capture probe on a capture layer on the surface and the signal that is generated is localized and specific. The signal can be in the form of a pellet, a fluorescent product, and/or a colored product, and can be detected and quantified by an optical bio-disc reader utilized in conjunction with the inventions hereof. This assay is thus quantitative in nature.