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Flowcell (Molecular Reality)

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From Molecupedia, the encyclopedia of very small things
Flow cell on Molecular Reality's streaming bench
For flow cells in general, see Flow cell.
A white plastic block lit from below, with red and blue wing nuts and tubing, beside a metal box
The flow cell on the streaming bench, lit from below, with the amplifier's case at left

The flowcell on Molecular Reality Corporation's streaming bench is a small block of acetal and PTFE that holds the pore, the liquid on either side of it and the electrodes that carry its current to the EDR4 amplifier. The company's shelf of provisions names it the "d2600 style cell" and describes it as a "delrin/teflon combo with luer locks and potted electrode".[1] Its entry on the live molecular stream adds that it is "One particular interposer style teflon and delrin flow cell with open top reservoir and epoxied chip. Has the number 08 written on it. Using janky older electrodes but they still look chloridated."[1]

The company's guide calls flow cells "the fluid plumbing, the little chambers that carry liquid to the membrane", and lists "swapping flowcells" among the unglamorous jobs that fill most of a day at the bench.[2]

Design

A flow cell for pore measurements has two reservoirs of salt solution separated by a membrane, and the only electrical path between them should run through the pore. An electrode in each reservoir applies the voltage and collects the current. Any leak around the edge of the chip opens a second path, which the amplifier cannot tell apart from the pore.

The company's cell is made of two plastics. Delrin, the trade name of an acetal resin, is stiff, machines cleanly and absorbs little water. Teflon, or polytetrafluoroethylene, resists nearly every chemical and repels water, which makes it a good insulator and a place where air bubbles like to stay. The cell's luer locks are the threaded fittings used on syringes and medical tubing, so that liquid can be exchanged without opening it. "Potted" means that the electrode is sealed into the body with resin, and "epoxied chip" that the membrane is glued in the same way, both to close the paths a leak could take.[1] The open top reservoir lets a sample be added from above.

The electrodes are silver wire coated with silver chloride. At each surface the current changes carriers: chloride ions from the solution combine with silver and give up electrons to the wire on one side, and the reaction runs backward on the other.[3] A working coat is dull and dark, and the company checks its "janky older electrodes" by eye.[1]
See also: Ag/AgCl electrode

On the stream

The cell sits directly under the amplifier, which hangs above it in a 3D-printed bracket, and both stream cameras look at it: "Microscope" from above, at the pore, and "Fluidics" from the side.[4] It holds the 200-micron laser-drilled pore. The stream's archive first lists it by name on an air test recorded on June 22, 2026, as "08-delrin-ptfe-demonpore2600-style".[5][a] Nine of the archive's eighteen recordings carry its default entry instead, "Baseline Flowcell", described as the "Default flow cell for EDR4 experiments".[1]

History

Small square 3D-printed parts in white, yellow and orange on a wooden table, with a purple pusher and a red block
Earlier 3D-printed flow cells and parts photographed by the company. The square cells have a window for the pore chip.

The company's flow cells go back to its first experiments. In late 2018, during the episode the company calls the rain of blood, Kemmish "grabbed a razor blade and bled into the flow cell" to put blood through one of its pores for the first time.[6] For the demonpore 64 console of 2020 and 2021, one contributor led the design of the enclosure and the flow cells while an outside designer built the electronics.[7] Company records give that console a pore cartridge that could be swapped in under 20 seconds.[8]

The company has said that the devices it plans for its members use "the same basic electronics and flow cells we tested as far back as 2020".[8] Its open design, the MR1 Nanopore Reader, replaces the block with a cartridge that holds a 4 by 4 millimeter chip, and rings the wet zone of its circuit board with a trace that detects leaks, the weep moat.[9]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Neither entry explains the "2600".

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Molecular Reality Corporation: live stream and provisions". Molecular Reality Corporation. Retrieved October 25, 2026.
  2. ^ "Keltar's Field Guide to Molecular Reality". Molecular Reality Corporation. August 2026.
  3. ^ Lenora Ashgrove (July 29, 2026). "Nineteen Billion Ions a Second, Live on the Internet". Signal & Noise.
  4. ^ "Molecular Reality Corporation". Molecular Reality Corporation. Retrieved October 25, 2026.
  5. ^ "Streams". Epic Quest Bio. Molecular Reality Corporation. Retrieved October 25, 2026.
  6. ^ Kemmishtree (March 29, 2026). "rain of blood". EQBio-OS.
  7. ^ Kemmishtree (March 29, 2026). "Sequencing a string". EQBio-OS.
  8. ^ a b "Company records". Molecular Reality Corporation. October 2026.
  9. ^ "MR1 Nanopore Reader". GitHub. October 16, 2026.
Retrieved from "https://molecularreality.com/wiki/Flowcell_(Molecular_Reality)"
Last edited 3 hours ago by DwellTimeDave