Bio-rad Laboratories, Inc.

Jeffry M Ceremony

Paul J Patt

Daniel Y Chu

Cliff Baldwin

Deepak K Doshi

Rhoel Rumbaoa

Dennis W Loring

German Arciniegas

A thermal cycling instrument for PCR and other reactions performed on multiple samples with temperature changes between sequential stages in the reaction procedure is supplied with a thermal block to provide rapid changes and close control over the temperature in each sample vessel and a pressure plate incorporated into a motorized lid that detects anomalies in the reaction vessels or in their positioning over the thermal block, and automatically adjusts the plate position to achieve an even force distribution over the sample vessels.

Thermal cycler with self-adjusting lid

A platform that supports a sample plate such as a microtiter plate, a multi-well plate of any size, or a glass slide with sample spots distributed over its surface, and presents the plate for assay detection by a movable scanning head that has a field depth on the millimeter scale is leveled or otherwise adjusted in a planar orientation by an apparatus that includes a rocker plate, position sensors, and motorized risers arranged on the apparatus to provide the rocker plate with tilting capability along either or both or two orthogonal axes.

Sample plate support of adjustable angular orientation

Nonuniformities in the efficiency of detection of individual fluorescing reaction mixtures in a well plate with a two-dimensional array well array are corrected. The nonuniformities arise both from the stimulation pattern and the detection pattern, and are corrected by adding additional segments to a pair of segmented mirrors. The additional segments are oriented to direct light to the outermost reaches (i.e., the four corners) of the array and thereby produce a stimulation pattern that has a greater intensity in the outermost regions. This compensates for a radial decline in the efficiency of the detector in detecting the emissions from the well plate, the radial decline being an artifact of systems that utilize CCDs or similar components as detectors.

Incident light redistribution to compensate for radial gradient in detector

A moving coil actuator that moves in a rapid back-and-forth motion is constructed with a magnet assembly that concentrates the magnetic flux in a region of limited length and with a coiled electric conductor that includes two separated regions of densely wound coil, the assembly and conductor arranged such that only one of the coil regions resides in a concentrated flux region at either end of the actuator stroke. This is achieved with either a single region of concentrated flux or two spatially separated regions of concentrated flux. In either case, the force constant, i.e., the motor force generated in each coil per unit of current through the coil, is non-linear, with a maximal force at each end of the stroke and a minimal force at the stroke mid-point. The result is an efficient use of the electric current and relatively small amounts of materials of construction, and accordingly less weight for the actuator to carry during its travel and its changes of direction.

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Fairfield, CA, United States of America

Jeffry M Ceremony