Automated laboratory for high-throughput biological assays and RNA interference
First Claim
1. An automated high-throughput biology laboratory, comprising:
- a plurality of self contained modules arranged in a layout and each module capable of being added or removed from the layout, at least one module being a dispenser module capable of dispensing one or more liquids into one or more wells of a high-density microplate and at least one module being an assay signal detection module capable of detection and measurement of physical signals of an assay in the wells of the high-density microplate;
one or more plate transports located near a center of the layout capable of transporting the high-density microplates between the plurality of modules within the layout; and
a system controller in communication with the transports and the plurality of modules in the layout.
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Abstract
The invention is an automated multiple-purpose, integrated laboratory system comprising interchangeable modular elements for the construction and measurement of biological assays. The functions of the modular elements may include multiwell platform handling, chemical reagent or cell management, volumetric transfer of liquids for assay construction or for recovery of reaction products for analysis, incubation under controlled environmental conditions, measurement of spectrometric signals originating from the assays, processing and analysis of the resulting spectrometric data, and other functions. The modular elements are arranged around a number of robotic elements that deliver plates to different modular elements, transfer plates to groups of modules served by a different robotic element, or other actions necessary in plate handling. Liquid transfer to and from multiwell platforms, necessary for assay construction or for the initiation of physiological events in cells, is partitioned among different modules specialized for transferring nanoliter or smaller volume quantities of chemical concentrates, or microliter quantities of assay reagents, cells, media and other assay constituents. Applications of this invention include the quantitation and analysis of the expression of multiple genes in cells, measurement of multi-gene expression kinetics, analysis of activation or suppression of multiple signal transduction pathways, screening chemical compounds for modulatory effects on multi-gene expression or on signal transduction pathways or on other biochemical networks of cells, or other analytical biological or biochemical assays.
49 Citations
42 Claims
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1. An automated high-throughput biology laboratory, comprising:
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a plurality of self contained modules arranged in a layout and each module capable of being added or removed from the layout, at least one module being a dispenser module capable of dispensing one or more liquids into one or more wells of a high-density microplate and at least one module being an assay signal detection module capable of detection and measurement of physical signals of an assay in the wells of the high-density microplate;
one or more plate transports located near a center of the layout capable of transporting the high-density microplates between the plurality of modules within the layout; and
a system controller in communication with the transports and the plurality of modules in the layout. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for screening a compound using an automated high-throughput biology laboratory, comprising:
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providing a biology laboratory comprising;
a plurality of self contained modules arranged in a layout and each module capable of being added or removed from the layout, at least one module being a dispenser module capable of dispensing one or more liquids into one or more wells of a high-density microplate and at least one module being an assay signal detection module capable of detection and measurement of physical signals of an assay in the wells of the high-density microplate;
one or more plate transports located near a center of the layout capable of transporting the high-density microplates between the plurality of modules within the layout; and
a system controller in communication with the transports and plurality of modules in the layout. providing one or more high-density microplate having a plurality of wells;
selectively dispensing one or more reagents into one or more wells of the high-density microplates with a microliter dispenser module;
selectively dispensing droplets of the compound directly from a storage plate into one or more wells of the high-density microplates with a nanoliter dispenser module; and
reading the physical signals of an assay in the wells of the high-density microplate with the signal detection module. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. An automated high-throughput biology laboratory, comprising:
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a plurality of self-contained components including;
at least one microliter dispenser capable of dispensing liquids into one or more wells of a high-density microplate;
at least one nanoliter dispenser capable of dispensing liquids into one or more wells of a high-density microplate; and
at least one plate reader capable of detection and measurement of physical signals of an assay in the wells of the high-density microplate;
one or more plate transports capable of transporting high-density microplates between the plurality of self-contained components; and
a system controller in communication with the transports and the plurality of self-contained components. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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Specification