Container for carrying out and monitoring biological processes
First Claim
1. A system comprisinga plurality of containers, said containers comprising walls composed of an optically transparent material and defining a volume having a first and second dimension, wherein the first dimension is less than the second dimension and the ratio of volume to external surface area of the container is less than 1 mm;
- a continuously rotatable carousel for holding said plurality of containers and sequentially moving the plurality of containers, one-by-one to a monitoring position;
a source of forced air for heating and cooling said plurality of containers; and
means for performing fluorescent detection on a sample contained within one of said plurality of containers and held at said monitoring position, while each sample is simultaneously subjected to rapid thermal cycling.
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Abstract
A thermal cycling method and device is disclosed. The device comprises a sample chamber whose temperature can be rapidly and accurately modulated over a range of temperatures needed to carry out a number of biological procedures, such as the DNA polymerase chain reaction. Biological samples are placed in containers each comprising a reservoir and a reaction portion, wherein the reaction portion has a small volume. The small volume reaction portion permits the rapid and accurate temperature modulation. With an optically transmissible reaction portion, DNA amplification may be monitored by fluorescence during PCR.
85 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A system comprising
a plurality of containers, said containers comprising walls composed of an optically transparent material and defining a volume having a first and second dimension, wherein the first dimension is less than the second dimension and the ratio of volume to external surface area of the container is less than 1 mm; -
a continuously rotatable carousel for holding said plurality of containers and sequentially moving the plurality of containers, one-by-one to a monitoring position; a source of forced air for heating and cooling said plurality of containers; and means for performing fluorescent detection on a sample contained within one of said plurality of containers and held at said monitoring position, while each sample is simultaneously subjected to rapid thermal cycling. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system for conducting and monitoring rapid PCR on multiple samples, said system comprising a plurality of containers, wherein said containers comprise:
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a capillary tube portion which is closed at one end, open at the other end and comprises an optically transparent portion; and a funnel-shaped portion, having a sample receiving port and a sample transfer port, said funnel-shaped portion being joined to the open end of the capillary tube portion, so that the sample transfer port of the funnel-shaped portion and the open end of the vessel are in alignment, wherein said container holds less than 1 ml of the sample; a removable structure that seals the sample receiving port of the funnel-shaped portion; a continuously rotatable carousel for holding said plurality of containers and sequentially moving the plurality of containers, one-by-one to a monitoring position; and a fluorimeter assembly for illuminating and detecting fluorescence of a sample held within the container at said monitoring position while all samples are being simultaneously subjected to rapid thermal cycling, wherein hot and cool forced air is used as the thermal transfer agent to conduct the rapid thermal cycling. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification