Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Nexus Biosystems, Inc.

Aurora Discovery, Incorporated

Brian Grot

James Edward Sinclair

Michael Paul Emery

Sanjay Shivayogi Magavi

Matthew Charles Wallace

Raymond J Gonzales

Peter J Coassin

Todd N Bennett

Minh Vuong

Javier Humberto Flores

Walter D Niles

David Nicol

Daniel Hale

Huy Nguyen

Tuong Phan

Steve Rodems

Jeff Stack

David H Nicol

Todd Bennett

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for the developing of immuno-stained biological samples. The systems disclosed herein are automated and are configured to control one or more steps of the developing procedure. Reagents may be added using automatic syringe dispensing. Reagent temperature, reagent stirring, and wash procedures are programmable and can be separately controlled for separate immuno-staining procedures that are performed at the same time.

Automated developer for immuno-stained biological samples

Disclosed herein is a modular test tube rack. The rack contains multiple sub-racks that can be coupled together to form the test tube rack. The sub-rack can be designed to fit into a variety of scientific instrumentation including a fixed rotor centrifuge. The assembled test tube rack can be of a format and size that allows use of standard array pipetters. Thus, a system is provided allowing use of standard array pipetters and high g centrifugation.

Modular test tube rack

A dual-use, high density plate for storage and assays includes a frame including a matrix of wells. The matrix includes preferably 3456 wells with top portions being arranged preferably approximately flush with a plane of the frame. A solvent-resistant material such as cyclo-olefin polymer forms at least the bottom portions of the wells, and preferably the same solvent resistant material forms the frame, although varying from the bottoms of the wells by being rendered opaque. Evaporation control wells are preferably included at the periphery of the matrix for reducing effects of evaporation on edge wells.

Multi-well plate providing a high-density storage and assay platform

The invention is an automated multiple-purpose, integrated laboratory system comprising interchangeable modular elements for the construction and measurement of biological assays. The functions of the modular elements may include multiwell platform handling, chemical reagent or cell management, volumetric transfer of liquids for assay construction or for recovery of reaction products for analysis, incubation under controlled environmental conditions, measurement of spectrometric signals originating from the assays, processing and analysis of the resulting spectrometric data, and other functions. The modular elements are arranged around a number of robotic elements that deliver plates to different modular elements, transfer plates to groups of modules served by a different robotic element, or other actions necessary in plate handling. Liquid transfer to and from multiwell platforms, necessary for assay construction or for the initiation of physiological events in cells, is partitioned among different modules specialized for transferring nanoliter or smaller volume quantities of chemical concentrates, or microliter quantities of assay reagents, cells, media and other assay constituents. Applications of this invention include the quantitation and analysis of the expression of multiple genes in cells, measurement of multi-gene expression kinetics, analysis of activation or suppression of multiple signal transduction pathways, screening chemical compounds for modulatory effects on multi-gene expression or on signal transduction pathways or on other biochemical networks of cells, or other analytical biological or biochemical assays.

Automated laboratory for high-throughput biological assays and RNA interference

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Brian Grot