SAMPLE PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES

• US 20170227562A1
• Filed: 04/28/2017
• Published: 08/10/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hamilton Bonaduz AG (Hamilton Company)
• Original Assignee: Hamilton Bonaduz AG (Hamilton Company)
• Inventors: GIOVANOLI, Nando
• Granted Patent: US 10,684,301 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B01F 29/31 the containers being supported by driving means, e.g. by rotating rollers
• CPC Class Codes: B01F 29/80 rotating about a substantially vertical axis
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/00366 Several different temperatures used
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/00524 Mixing by agitating sample carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/00752 bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/0405 manipulating closing or opening means, e.g. stoppers, screw caps, lids or covers
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/0429 Sample carriers adapted for special purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/00732 Identification of carriers, materials or components in automatic analysers
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/0099 comprising robots or similar manipulators robots per se B25J
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/04 Details of the conveyor system G01N35/021 - G01N35/028 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/1002 Reagent dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/1074 arranged in a two-dimensional array
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/1083 with one horizontal degree of freedom

Abstract

The invention relates to a sample processing system and method for processing biological samples, comprising a sample processing device having: a receiving plate, which is arranged substantially horizontally in a plane; a first and second working arm, which can move relative to the receiving plate and extend substantially parallel to each other in a second direction (Y) over the receiving plate; at least one pipetting device mounted on the first working arm, which is movable in the second direction (Y) and in a third direction (Z) orthogonal in relation to the first and second direction (X, Y); at least one gripping device, mounted on the second working arm, with grippers that can be rotated around a gripper axis of rotation (GA) parallel to the third direction (Z); and a control device for controlling the pipetting device and the gripping device.

Claims

1. A processing method for biological samples, comprising the steps:

providing of at least one sample container carrier with at least one closed sample container in which a biological sample is contained;

moving of the at least one sample container carrier onto a receiving plate of a sample processing device by the following steps;

gripping said at least one sample container by means of a gripping device of the sample processing device;

mixing the sample liquid contained within the sample container by rotating the sample container by means of the gripping device;

placing the sample container at a desired position in the sample processing device by means of the gripping device for further processing.

2. The processing method according to claim 1, further comprising the following steps:

placing the sample container into a closing device;

detaching a closing element of the sample container accommodated within the closing device by means of the closing device;

removing the detached closing element from the sample container and from the closing device by means of the gripping device;

thereby canceling an engagement between the closing element and the sample container after the detaching.

3. The processing method according to claim 1, further comprising providing of at least one pipetting tip carrier with unused pipetting tips and moving the at least one pipetting tip carrier onto the receiving plate of the sample processing device.

4. The processing method according to claim 3, further comprising the following steps:

collecting a pipetting tip from the pipetting tip carrier by means of a pipetting device;

aspirating a desired amount of the sample liquid from a specific sample container;

dispensing the sample liquid accommodated within the pipetting tip into another empty sample container; and

disposing of the used pipetting tip.

5. The processing method according to claim 2, further comprising the following steps:

placing the previously removed used closing element or placing an unused closing element onto the sample container located within the closing device by means of the gripping device;

closing the sample container located within the closing device by means of the closing device;

generating an initial engagement between the closing element and the sample container after placing the closing element;

removing the reclosed sample container from the closing device by means of the gripping device; and

placing of the reclosed sample container.

6. The processing method according to claim 1, wherein the closed sample container which contains the biological probe, is a sample container of a first type and wherein the method further comprises the following steps:

providing at least one unclosed sample container of a second type, wherein on the sample containers of the first and the second type, an identification pattern is attached and wherein two sample containers, one of the first and one of the second type comprise an identical identification pattern.

7. The processing method according to claim 6, wherein during movement of the sample container carriers with the sample containers of the first and the second type, the identification pattern on the single sample containers is detected and stored.

8. The processing method according to claim 7, wherein during placing of the sample container within the sample container carrier the identification pattern attached to the sample container is detected by means of a sensor unit on the gripping device and wherein the sample container is placed in a predetermined rotation position relative to the rotation position in which the identification pattern has been detected into the sample container carrier such that a plurality of sample containers placed into the sample container carrier by means of the gripping device are aligned with respect to their respective identification pattern in essentially in the same manner.

9. The processing method according to claim 7, wherein the empty sample container, into which the sample liquid is dispensed is a sample container of the second type.

10. The processing method according to claim 1, wherein said providing step is performed outside of the sample processing device on a providing area in front of the sample processing device.

11. The processing method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps:

automated moving of the sample container carriers from the receiving plate of the sample processing device to the providing surface and manually taking out the sample container carriers.

12. The processing method according to claim 1, further comprising providing a closing element carrier with unused closing elements for sample containers.

13. The processing method according to claim 12, further comprising manual positioning of the closing element carrier on the receiving plate of the sample processing device.

14. The processing method according to claim 1, wherein mixing of the sample liquid in a sample container is performed by means of the gripping device after transport of the sample container into the region of a disposal container.

15. The processing method according to claim 1, wherein the steps are performed repeatedly until each sample container has been processed.

16. The processing method according to claim 2, wherein the steps are performed repeatedly until each sample container has been processed.

17. The processing method according to claim 2, wherein the closing element is rotated by means of the gripping device after placing of the closing element by the gripping element and before closing of the closing element.

18. The processing method according to claim 4, wherein the steps are performed repeatedly until each sample container has been processed.

19. The processing method according to claim 5, wherein the steps are performed repeatedly until each sample container has been processed.

20. The processing method according to claim 5, wherein the closing element is rotated by means of the gripping device after placing of the closing element by the gripping element and before closing the closing element.

21. The processing method according to claim 5, wherein the reclosed sample container is placed in sample container carriers, and wherein the sample container had been previously taken out of the sample container carrier.

22. The processing method according to claim 6, wherein during the step of providing at least one unclosed sample container, there is an empty sample container of a second type in a corresponding sample container carrier.