Hewlett-packard Company

Leland Stanford Junior University

Perkin-elmer Corp., Applied Biosystems Division

Melvyn N Kronick

John A Bridgham

John S Shigeura

George Stefan Golda

Charles E Bryson, Iii

William A Little

Norman M Whiteley

Paul E Mayrand

Louis B Hoff

Lincoln J McBride

William J Mordan

Douglas H Keith

Thomas Brennan-Marquez

Harry A Guiremand

G Richard Cathcart

Sam H Eletr

Chen-Hanson Ting

Michael L Metzker

Eric Lachenmeier

Marianne Hane

A liquid-handling instrument has a worksurface with registration for modular stations to support containers of liquid, pipette apparatus with a pipette tip coupled to a sensing circuit, a robotic translation system for moving the pipette tip, and a control system with an iconic user interface for programming and editing. A gauge block registered on the worksurface provides for calibration using the sensing tip, and register cavities on the worksurface provide for modular stations. There is a wash station fop the pipette tip on the worksurface. An automated laboratory based on the liquid-handling system has heating and cooling and a sealable incubation station as well as a magnetic separation station. Methods are disclosed using the apparatus to convey droplets of liquid, to aspirate with minimum tip contamination, to mix liquids in containers, and to validate the worksurface. A duck-billed closure is disclosed for minimizing evaporation and cross-contamination during processing, and is a part of a container disclosed for storing and transporting liquids.

Automated molecular biology laboratory

A device is provided for measuring the concentration of oxygen in a sample utilizing the differential absorption by oxygen (O.sub.2) of two closely spaced ultraviolet (UV) radiation lines. The two UV lines are preferably isotope-shifted Hg lines in the vicinity of the Hg atomic transistion line at 1849.5A.

Measurement of oxygen by differential absorption of UV radiation

Receptors are employed to which one or more fluroescent molecules are bound. When the receptors are bound to the epitopic sites on the surface and light of predetermined wave length is directed toward the surface, the fluorescing molecules are activated and fluoresce. In carrying out an assay, receptor is combined with an unknown suspected of containing molecules having the same epitopic sites bound to the surface. The receptor will bind to these molecules reducing the number of receptor sites available for binding to the epitopic sites on the surface. When the assay medium is contacted with the surface, the amount of receptor which binds to the surface, will be a function of available binding sites and, therefore, to the number of the molecules present in the unknown. Upon irradiation of the surface, substantially only the fluoroescent molecules bound to the surface will fluoresce. By monitoring the fluorescence, one can determine the presence and number of molecules of interest present in the unknown. The apparatus consists of a transparent solid sheet, conveniently as part of or optically connected to a prism, a light source set at an angle to provide total internal reflection at the sheet, a cell which includes the reflecting surface as a wall, and a fluorescence detector. Various optics and filters may be employed to modify the light source beam and the fluorescence beam. This work was carried out under a grant of the National Science Foundation.

Fluorescent immunoassay employing total reflection for activation

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Melvyn N Kronick