Automated staining apparatus

• US 5,948,359 A
• Filed: 03/21/1997
• Issued: 09/07/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Biogenex Laboratories Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Biogenex Laboratories Incorporated
• Inventors: Zhang, Jason Z., Kalra, Krishan L., Shui, Jianghong, Chang, Zhi-Weng
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Long V.
• Application Number:
  US08/820,883
• Time in Patent Office: 900 Days
• Field of Search: 422/63, 422/65, 422/67, 422/99, 422/100, 422/81, 436/46, 436/54, 436/63, 436/174, 436/180, 436/43, 73/864.01, 73/864.24, 73/864.25, 118/58, 118/59, 118/300, 427/4
• US Class Current: 422/65
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 1/312 for samples mounted on planar substrates
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2001/317 spraying liquids onto surfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/109 with two horizontal degrees of freedom
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 436/11 Automated chemical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 436/112499 with sample on test slide
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 436/119163 with aspirator of claimed structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 436/2575 Volumetric liquid transfer

Abstract

Disclosed is an automated staining apparatus including an arm moveable in three dimensions, and a hollow tip head located on the arm including integral reagent tip head, wash tip and blow tip for selectively dispensing gas and liquid onto microscope slides. Also disclosed are various sub-components of the apparatus that are specifically adapted to the processing of specimens on slides.

Claims

1. An automatic apparatus for staining a microscope slide comprising:

a supporting framework;

at least one arm moveable in three dimensions attached to said framework;

means for moving said arm;

at least one hollow tip head located on said arm;

at least one reagent tip head located on said hollow tip head further comprising means for releasably engaging a pipette tip by a pre-selected movement of said arm;

means for alternatively supplying positive or negative gas pressure to said reagent tip head to withdraw or dispense volumes of liquid onto a microscope slide via said reagent tip head and pipette tip;

at least one wash tip located on said hollow tip head comprising means for selectively dispensing a plurality of liquids onto the microscope slide;

at least one blow tip located on said hollow tip head comprising means for selectively dispensing a gas onto the microscope slide via an exit slit substantially equal in length to the width of the slide;

at least one pipette tip holder at a predetermined location on said framework adapted for holding a plurality of pipette tips adapted to be releasably attached to said reagent tip head;

at least one reagent vial holder at a second predetermined location on said framework adapted for holding a plurality of reagent vials;

at least one microscope slide holder at a third predetermined location on said framework, said microscope slide holder being adapted to releasably contain the microscope slide; and

control means operatively connected to said means for moving said arm, said means for alternatively supplying positive or negative gas pressure, said means for selectively dispensing a plurality of liquids, said means for selectively dispensing gas and said means for controlling movement of said arm between said predetermined locations, said control means adapted to cause said tip head to engage a pipette tip, to release the pipette tip, to withdraw a reagent from said reagent vial, to dispense said reagent onto said slide via said pipette tip, and to dispense a gas or a liquid onto said slide through said wash tip and said blow tip.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said supporting framework comprises a cabinet having an interior space and all of said predetermined locations are in said interior space.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein said cabinet has a closeable access port.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said arm remains in a predetermined location in the absence of power being supplied to said means for moving said arm.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said arm moves along independent X, Y, and Z axes for independent movement of said tip head in three orthogonal directions.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein said X and Y axes are oriented in the horizontal plane of said apparatus when said apparatus is in its normal operating orientation.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said apparatus further comprises a plurality of individual liquid pumps in selectable fluid communication with said wash tip via said hollow tip head.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said means for supplying gas pressure comprises a gas compressor.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said means for supplying gas pressure is capable of withdrawing or dispensing a predetermined amount of gas through said reagent tip head, said predetermined amount being selectable by said control means, thereby providing precise withdrawing or dispensing of a liquid into or from a pipette tip engaged with said reagent tip head.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein said means for supplying gas pressure comprises a moveable piston that controls the movement of a liquid in a liquid supply conduit between a liquid reservoir and said reagent tip head.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of said wash tip and said blow tip are individually integrated into said hollow tip head.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said pipette tip holder is adapted to retain at least one rack of disposable tips, whereby said tips are retained by said holder as an array of pipette tips at a predetermined location and orientation for access by said tip head.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein further comprising at least one additional reagent vial holder at a fourth predetermined location on said framework.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said apparatus further comprises a microscope slide tray releasably engaged with said framework and adapted to retain multiple microscope slides in a predetermined array at said third location.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said tray comprises individual wells for each microscope slide and said wells are partially open on their lower surfaces.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said hollow tip head further comprises a laser bar-code scanner adapted to read a bar-code.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the reagent vial holder comprises a reagent vial locator between each reagent vial including a bar-code indicator to indicate the location of each individual reagent vial.

18. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein said microscope slide tray comprises a slide locator bar-code region on the slide tray including a bar-code indicator to indicate the location of each individual microscope slide on the tray.

19. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said control means comprises a programmable computer system.

20. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said control means is adapted to cause a gas to be blown through said blow tip at a predetermined time as said blow tip is moved horizontally over said microscope slide.

21. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said control means is adapted to cause a pipette tip on said reagent tip head to withdraw and hold for transfer a predetermined volume of a reagent from a selected reagent vial, thereafter to cause said reagent tip head to move to a preselected location above a preselected microscope slide in said microscope slide holder, and thereafter to cause said pipette tip to dispense a predetermined volume of said reagent onto said microscope slide in a preselected pattern.

22. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said control means comprises a plurality of formats for the control of the said apparatus.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein at least one of said formats is a closed format which utilizes bar-code information to supply at least some of the information required for automatically processing microscope slides.

24. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein at least one of said formats is an open format which permits a user of the apparatus to select at least one parameter to supply the information required for processing microscope slides.