Integrated sample-processing system
First Claim
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1. A system for delivering fluid to a sample holder comprising a fluid source, a pump connected to the fluid source, a dispenser assembly having an orifice, and a conduit path extending from the pump to the orifice of the dispenser assembly, the conduit path remaining open and unconstricted between successive non-contact deposition of fluid aliquots having a volume of less than about 5 microliters per aliquot.
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Abstract
The invention provides an integrated sample-processing system and components thereof for preparing and/or analyzing samples. The components may include a transport module, a fluidics module, and an analysis module, among others.
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Citations
58 Claims
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1. A system for delivering fluid to a sample holder comprising
a fluid source, a pump connected to the fluid source, a dispenser assembly having an orifice, and a conduit path extending from the pump to the orifice of the dispenser assembly, the conduit path remaining open and unconstricted between successive non-contact deposition of fluid aliquots having a volume of less than about 5 microliters per aliquot.
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20. A fluid dispensing assembly comprising
a manifold device having a plurality of apertures, a plurality of tip devices, each tip device having a conduit channel connected contiguously with an aperture in the manifold, each tip device being made of a heat-shrinkable hydrophobic material and having a wall thickness small enough so that droplets of less than 5 microliters per droplet can be separated from the tip device without contacting the droplets to a surface and without closing or constricting the conduit channel.
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30. A fluid dispensing system comprising
an array of N dispense tips, each dispense tip being connected to a separate syringe pump, a fluid source bank, the fluid source bank having X number of fluid reservoirs, where X is in the range of 1 to N, and a changeable fluid conduit network capable of permitting: - (a) each pump to be connected to a separate fluid reservoir, (b) each pump to be connected to the same fluid reservoir, (c) any subset of pumps to be connected to the same fluid reservoir while one or more other tips are connected to another fluid reservoir.
- View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A device for dispensing fluid to a sample or sample holder, the device comprising
a fluid reservoir, a pump device connected to the fluid reservoir, and a dispense element operatively connected to the pump device, wherein the pump device drives fluid incrementally to the dispense element with sufficient velocity and acceleration so that a fluid aliquot of less than about five microliters separates from the dispense element without contacting a surface.
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40. A method of dispensing fluid aliquots of less than about 1 microliter per aliquot comprising
connecting a pump to a dispense tip via a conduit path, pulsing fluid through the conduit path, and ejecting a fluid aliquot of less than about 1 microliter from the dispense tip for each fluid pulse.
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45. A fluid dispensing system comprising
a fixed two dimensional array of dispense tips that are capable of non-contact deposition of fluid aliquots of less than about 5 microliters per aliquot simultaneously into a plurality of rows of wells in a microplate.
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46. A fluid dispensing system comprising
a syringe pump having a linear motor, and a dispense tip connected to the pump for depositing a fluid aliquot to a sample holder.
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49. An integrated high throughput analysis system comprising
an assay preparation unit that combines reagents and samples in wells of a microplate, an analyzer integrated with the assay preparation unit, wherein the analyzer includes optics that are substantially matched to the wells of the microplate, and a controller that can be programmed to oversee assay preparation and analysis.
Specification