Systems and methods for the automated pre-treatment and processing of biological samples
First Claim
1. A method for processing slides, comprising:
- introducing one or more new slides into one of a plurality of stainers;
obtaining slide identification information for at least one of the one or more new slides;
obtaining a treatment protocol sequence for the at least one of the one or more new slides from a centralized database associated with the plurality of stainers using the slide identification information;
determining if an adequate quantity of reagents to be used in the treatment protocol sequence is available on the one of the plurality of stainers; and
processing at the one of the plurality of stainers the at least one of the one or more new slides according to commands in a command list corresponding to the treatment protocol sequence for the at least one of the one or more new slides.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods allowing for the automatic control and scheduling of a staining apparatus for biological samples on slides present within the apparatus. In some embodiments, the actions of a robot coupled to the staining apparatus, which performs some of the staining tasks on the individual slides in accordance with their respective protocols, may be prioritized and scheduled. In some embodiments, the scheduling may result in increasing or maximizing the throughput of slides. In some embodiments, robot scheduling ensures that the individual slides are processed substantially within the tolerances specified by their respective protocols. In some embodiments, the robot scheduler may respond to spontaneous user actions and adaptively schedule or re-schedule robot actions.
112 Citations
37 Claims
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1. A method for processing slides, comprising:
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introducing one or more new slides into one of a plurality of stainers; obtaining slide identification information for at least one of the one or more new slides; obtaining a treatment protocol sequence for the at least one of the one or more new slides from a centralized database associated with the plurality of stainers using the slide identification information; determining if an adequate quantity of reagents to be used in the treatment protocol sequence is available on the one of the plurality of stainers; and processing at the one of the plurality of stainers the at least one of the one or more new slides according to commands in a command list corresponding to the treatment protocol sequence for the at least one of the one or more new slides. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method for processing slides, comprising:
- introducing one or more new slides into one of a plurality of stainers;
obtaining slide identification information for at least one of the one or more new slides; obtaining a treatment protocol sequence for the at least one of the one or more new slides from a centralized database associated with the one of the plurality of stainers using the slide identification information; and processing the at least one of the one or more new slides according to commands in a command list corresponding to the treatment protocol sequence for the at least one of the one or more new slides, wherein the one or more new slides are introduced into the one of the plurality of stainers concurrent with processing of any old slides previously presented to the one of the plurality of stainers. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
- introducing one or more new slides into one of a plurality of stainers;
Specification