System and method for flexibly representing and processing assay plates

• US 20040033610A1
• Filed: 03/11/2003
• Published: 02/19/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Craig P. Lovell, Iii, Thomas Lucas Hampton
• Original Assignee: Craig P. Lovell, Iii, Thomas Lucas Hampton
• Inventors: Lovell, Craig P., Hampton, Thomas Lucas III
• Granted Patent: US 8,442,689 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 436/43
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2300/021 Identification, e.g. bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 3/5085 for multiple samples, e.g. microtitration plates
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 3/545 for laboratory containers
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 9/50 Clamping means, tongs in general F16B2/06
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 9/56 Means for indicating position of a recipient or sample in an array
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/00831 identification of the sample, e.g. patient identity, place of sampling
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2035/0491 Position sensing, encoding; closed-loop control
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/00584 Control arrangements for automatic analysers
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/00871 Communications between instruments or with remote terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/028 having reaction cells in the form of microtitration plates
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 436/11 Automated chemical analysis

Abstract

A flexible instrument control and data storage/management system and method for representing and processing assay plates having one or more predefined plate locations is disclosed. The system utilizes a graph data structure, layer objects and data objects. The layer objects map the graph data structure to the data objects. The graph data structure can comprise one node for each of the one or more predefined plate locations, wherein the nodes can be hierarchically defined according to a predefined plate location hierarchy. Each node can be given a unique node identifier, a node type and a node association that implements the predefined plate location hierarchy. The layer objects can include an index that maps the node identifiers to the data objects.

Claims

1. A flexible instrument control and data storage/management system for representing and processing an assay plate having one or more predefined plate locations, the system comprising:

a graph data structure;

at least one layer object; and

at least one data object configured to have one or more data records,

wherein each of the at least one layer objects maps the graph data structure to one or more of the at least one data objects.

2. The system according to claim 1, the graph data structure further comprising one node for each of the one or more predefined plate locations, wherein the nodes are hierarchically defined according to a predefined plate location hierarchy.

3. The system according to claim 2, each node having a unique node identifier and a node type.

4. The system according to claim 3 wherein the node type is selected from the group consisting of plate, sector, well and spot.

5. The system according to claim 4, each node further having a node association that implements the predefined plate location hierarchy.

6. The system according to claim 5, each of the at least one layer objects having an index, wherein the index maps each node identifier to one or more of the at least one data objects.

7. The system according to claim 5 wherein the assay plate has a predefined number of wells arranged in a plurality of well groupings, and wherein the one or more predefined plate locations include:

at least first and second spots in each well;

at least first and second sectors associated with each grouping of wells,

wherein the first and second sectors each contain the first and second spots, respectively, from each well of the associated grouping of wells.

8. The system according to claim 7 wherein the assay plate comprises 96 wells arranged in a grid of 8 rows and 12 columns of wells, wherein each well grouping is one column of wells.

9. The system according to claim 5, wherein the graph data structure is a tree data structure.

10. The system according to claim 5 embodied on a computer-readable medium.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the assay plate has associated geometry data that includes one or more predefined points of interest, the system further comprising:

a tree of one or more multi-dimensional coordinate space objects having a plurality of subspaces, the subspaces each being anchored in the coordinate space object at a predefined subspace anchor point,

wherein one or more of the plurality of subspaces may contain one or more of the predefined points of interest.

12. A method of controlling an instrument to process an assay plate, the assay plate having associated geometry data that includes one or more predefined points of interest, the method employing a computerized set of instructions implementing a tree of one or more multi-dimensional coordinate space objects, wherein the tree has a root coordinate space and each coordinate space object has a plurality of subspaces, each of the subspaces being anchored in the coordinate space object at a predefined subspace anchor point and wherein one or more of the plurality of subspaces may contain one or more of the predefined points of interest, the method comprising:

ascertaining the point of interest;

resolving the point of interest to the root coordinate space;

instructing the instrument to move to the ascertained point of interest by traversing the tree of coordinate spaces.

13. A computerized instrument control and data storage/management system for representing and processing an assay plate having one or more predefined plate locations having at least one central processing unit (CPU), and at least one memory storage device having stored therein a set of instrument control and data storage/management instructions for execution by the at least one CPU, the set of instrument control and data storage/management instructions providing, when so executed, at least one instrument with the ability to represent and process assay plates, the set of instrument control and data storage/management instructions comprising:

a first set of instructions constructed and arranged to represent the assay plate as a graph data structure;

a second set of instructions constructed and arranged to store data associated with the assay plate; and

a third set of instructions constructed and arranged to map the stored data to the graph data structure representation of the assay plate.

14. Storage media containing software that, when executed on a computing system, performs a method for flexibly representing and processing an assay plate, the method comprising the steps of:

representing the assay plate in a graph data structure having a plurality of nodes representing predefined plate locations;

storing at least one data object having one or more data records; and

mapping the at least one data object to the graph data structure wherein the one or more data records are associated with corresponding plate locations.

15. A computer-implemented method for dynamically configuring a diagnostic system to process an assay plate, the method comprising the steps of:

reading one or more plate processing files from an electronic storage medium;

constructing one or more plate definition data structures;

determining a plate type of the assay plate;

selecting one of the one or more plate processing files that corresponds to the determined plate type; and

configuring the diagnostic system to process the assay plate,

wherein the step of configuring the diagnostic system comprises instantiating one or more associated plate objects.

16. A computer implemented method for dynamically and electronically storing assay results obtained from a specific assay plate processed on a specific diagnostic system platform, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more plate-specific processing parameters associated with the specific assay plate;

receiving one or more platform-specific processing parameters associated with the specific diagnostic system platform;

receiving the assay results;

associating the assay results with the one or more plate-specific processing parameters and the one or more platform-specific processing parameters;

storing the associated assay results on an electronic storage medium,

wherein the associated assay results may subsequently be read and displayed and/or analyzed in accordance with the plate-specific and platform-specific processing parameters.

17. A computer implemented method for dynamically analyzing assay results obtained from a specific assay plate that was processed by a specific diagnostic system in accordance with one or more plate-specific processing parameters and one or more platform-specific processing parameters, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an instruction identifying the assay results to be analyzed;

retrieving the assay results;

extracting processing parameters from the assay results, the processing parameters including the one or more plate-specific processing parameters and the one or more platform-specific processing parameters; and

configuring a computer to analyze the identified assay results in accordance with the extracted processing parameters.

18. The method according to claim 17 further comprising the step of displaying the assay results in accordance with the extracted processing parameters.