On this page you will find the following sections:
Manuals | Protocols | Software | Technical notes | Service | Webinars | Training videos | Collaborators | FAQs
The instrument manuals describes in details all the steps and materials required to produce or sort droplets.
Please contact us for the latest version of the Xdrop and Xdrop Sort manual.
These protocols may include products not supported by Samplix such as sequencers and flow cytometers. Further optimization may be required.
The current software versions are:
For the most up-to-date software versions, reach out to support@samplix.com.
Improved double-emulsion sorting using purpose-built software functionality to large particles
Immune cell-mediated cytotoxicity: single-cell insight with image cytometry
Efficient cell capture in droplets with Xdrop
Encapsulating yeast cells for screening and recovery
Simple analysis of Xdrop droplets on the Agilent NovoCyte Quanteon flow cytometer
Choose a Samplix Service Plan to ensure optimal instrument performance while avoiding the costs associated with unexpected downtime.
Our plans are designed to:
Our comprehensive plans are designed to meet your specific needs, providing dependable, single-source coverage.
Contact us for more information.
Discover this fantastic webinar with Thomas Hulen from the National Center for Cancer Immune Therapy, Herlev Hospital, Denmark. By watching it you'll learn:
How TIL and CAR T cell phenotypes vary between and within patients.
Checkpoint disruption during TIL production and its impact on TILs.
Bulk CAR T cells possibly having subpopulations with variable anti-tumor potency.
How our Xdrop single-cell workflow helps identify these subpopulations.
Learn more about the process and product in these short videos, then visit our training video collection for more detail on the whole process.
See how straightforward it is to encapsulate your sample (e.g., cells or DNA fragments) in double-emulsion (DE) droplets. In the video, an Xdrop DE50 Cartridge is loaded with natural killer cells and lymphoblasts, which are then encapsulated for a cell-killing assay in single-cell format. Droplets will contain a natural killer cell, a lymphoblast, or both cell types; some will be empty. The droplets with a single cell or no cells act as controls.
Supporting groundbreaking research is integral to our mission. Discover how Xdrop is helping our customers push the boundaries of innovation in their research and development:
Here we answer frequently asked questions (FAQs) about double emulsion droplets, Xdrop technology, and assay workflows. Explore expert answers on technology, applications, and performance, backed by real lab experience. For further questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Double emulsions are droplets within droplets. In Xdrop, this usually means a water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) system, where the inner droplet contains the sample (e.g., a single-cell suspension), surrounded by an oil layer, and then suspended in an outer aqueous phase. Double emulsions offer several key advantages, making them an ideal platform for single-cell analysis and screening:
Picolitre Volume: These droplets act as miniaturized bioreactors, or "wells on a plate", enabling the development of novel, high-sensitivity bioassays. Due to their picolitre volume, reaction times are faster, leading to more efficient use of costly reagents.
Biocompatible Environment: Droplets provide a cell-friendly microenvironment, supporting various biochemical reactions (e.g., PCR) and live-cell assays.
High-Throughput: Double emulsions are produced in a one-step process at very high frequency (>kHz).
Flow Cytometry Compatibility: Unlike single emulsions, the outer aqueous phase ensures compatibility with flow cytometry and cell sorters.
Xdrop allows researchers to encapsulate single cells or cell pairs into droplets that integrate seamlessly into flow cytometry and sorter workflows. This enables the analysis of the entire cellular microenvironment, not just individual cells. Advantages include:
True Single-Cell Isolation
Maintains Cell Viability for downstream assays
Minimizes Cross-Contamination between cells
Compatible with Multiple Downstream Processes (e.g., sequencing, PCR, antibody discovery)
Works with Low Input Samples
Can pair with Fluorescent Markers for targeted enrichment
Combining Xdrop with flow cytometry enables high-throughput, single-cell analysis while keeping cells alive and isolated in their own microenvironments. Together, they provide a powerful platform for high-resolution, high-throughput single-cell studies with the following advantages:
1. Live-Cell Analysis and Sorting Unlike assays using intracellular markers, Xdrop droplets enable analysis and sorting of live cells, supporting downstream applications such as single-cell RNA sequencing or clonal expansion.
2. No Signal Cross-Talk Encapsulation ensures each signal originates from the specific cell within the droplet, eliminating interference from neighbouring high producers.
3. Single-Cell Pair Analysis Droplets can encapsulate defined cell pairs, such as an effector and a target cell, enabling direct study of cell–cell interactions in cytotoxicity assays, a valuable tool for cancer research and cell therapy development.
4. High-Throughput, Single-Cell Resolution Millions of droplets can be analyzed in a single run, each functioning as an independent microreactor. This enables large-scale screening with true single-cell precision.
5. Targeted Sorting of Rare Events Droplet fluorescence intensity can be used as a readout to enrich for rare or high-performing cells (e.g., antibody-secreting B cells, potent CAR-T cells). The encapsulated format minimizes contamination during sorting.
6. Preservation of the Cellular Microenvironment Each droplet maintains the native microenvironment of the encapsulated cell, preserving secreted molecules, cell–cell interactions, and reporter signals throughout analysis and sorting.
7. Multiparametric Analysis Flow cytometers can measure multiple fluorescence channels simultaneously. Combined with Xdrop, this allows:
8. Flexible Downstream Applications After sorting, droplets can be broken to recover:
9. Compatibility with Standard Flow Cytometry Xdrop’s double emulsion (W/O/W) format makes droplets fully compatible with standard flow cytometers and sorters. The outer aqueous phase allows droplets to be analyzed and sorted like regular cells or beads, no specialized instruments required.
10. Broad Instrument Compatibility Xdrop droplets (e.g., from DE20 or DE50 cartridges) are compatible with major commercial cytometers and sorters, including BD, Sony, Cytek, Agilent, and Beckman Coulter, ensuring seamless integration into existing workflows.
The size and volume of the droplets generated depend on the cartridge type and pressure range used. Using default settings, the droplet sizes are:
Xdrop DE20 Cartridge: 15 µm inner diameter, 20 µm outer diameter.
Xdrop DE50 Cartridge: 50 µm inner diameter, 70 µm outer diameter.
Droplet generation is fast, generally a few minutes per lane. The total experiment time is not dependent of the number of lanes.
Xdrop DE20 Cartridge: 40 minutes
Xdrop DE50 Cartridge: 5 minutes
Standard Xdrop cartridges have 1–8 independent lanes, allowing multiple samples to be processed in parallel.
Yes, droplet size can be adjusted by tuning the well pressures. However maximum and minimun droplets sizes are limited by the cartridge's microfluidic structure.
Xdrop technology can generate up to 7 million droplets per lane, depending on the cartridge used:
Xdrop DE20 Cartridge: ~7 million droplets per lane.
Xdrop DE50 Cartridge: ~1 million droplets per lane.
Xdrop is designed for live-cell encapsulation and has been used with a wide range of cell lines and primary cells from various species and tissue sources, including:
Cell Lines: CHO, HEK293, Jurkat, NK cells, CAR-T cells, Plasma B cells
Primary Cells: PBMCs, Hybridoma cells, Spleen cells
Microbial Cells: E. coli, Yeast
Note: Suspension cells generally work best; however, adherent cells can be used after trypsinization, though they may tend to aggregate.
Typically, 100,000 to 2 million cells are loaded, depending on the experiment and target frequency.
Xdrop DE20 Cartridge: Requires 40 µL of cell sample.
Xdrop DE50 Cartridge: Requires 100 µL of cell sample.
In most cases, you can use the culture medium that works best for your cells. However, there are some important considerations:
Use a medium with low FBS content (<10% recommended).
Avoid media with high detergent concentrations, as they may affect droplet stability.
Phenol red-free medium is recommended for improved assay performance and signal detection.
Droplets can be incubated off-chip in DNA LoBind centrifuge tubes or culture plates using standard cell incubators.
Fluorescent markers are generally added before droplet generation for live-cell staining or after droplet formation if compatible with droplet permeability.
Staining is typically done before loading into the cartridge to ensure markers are present during droplet formation.
Cells can be incubated in droplets from several hours up to days, depending on cell type and assay. Droplet stability and cell viability are maintained during typical incubation periods.
Yes, Xdrop droplets are compatible with most flow cytometry sorting systems, provided that droplet size matches sorter capabilities (usually 100 µm or larger) and sorting delay can be manually adjusted.
Xdrop droplets are compatible with most flow cytometers and sorters, such as:
Agilent
Sony
BD
Cytek
Beckman Coulter
For sorting droplet size should match the nozzle size:
Xdrop DE20 Cartridge: 100 µm nozzle
Xdrop DE50 Cartridge: 130 µm nozzle
Xdrop can be integrated with various downstream processes to support different workflows and applications:
Single-cell culture for outgrowth and clone expansion.
Gene recovery via single-cell RT-PCR, enabling the recovery of genes (e.g., IgG or VDJ variable regions) for validation.
Single-cell sequencing workflows, e.g., RNA sequencing with platforms like 10x Genomics.
Antibody discovery, particularly with our V(D)J sequencing protocol.
