Patent ID: 8865479

Claim:
A method comprising steps of: contacting an array of subnanoliter volumes of liquid, each subnanoliter volume of liquid (i) being disposed in one of a plurality of microwells, and (ii) containing a single cell or a few cells and cell-derived products derived from said single cell or few cells, with a substantially planar surface of a solid substrate, wherein the substantially planar surface has at least one capture ligand immobilized thereon; the capture ligand being characterized in that, when exposed to cell-derived products, the capture ligand acts to retain at least one a cell-derived product of the cell-derived products from said single cell or few cells in association with the substantially planar surface; such that the at least one cell-derived product from each subnanoliter volume of liquid is retained by the capture ligand in association with the substantially planar surface in the region of the substantially planar surface contacted by the subnanoliter volume of liquid; wherein each microwell has a side or diameter of less than 100 microns, and wherein each microwell contains not more than a few cells; and separating the substantially planar surface of the solid substrate from the array of subnanoliter volumes of liquid, wherein the at least one cell-derived product is retained in association with said region of the substantially planar surface of the solid substrate.