Other

Phenomenex, Inc.

Archidex

Qi-Feng Ma

Fred Astani

Rong Guo

Iraj Aghazade Mohandesi

The present invention describes a rotary valve for simultaneously diverting a plurality of liquid streams among a plurality of liquid receivers in a sequential and cyclic manner. Said rotary valve comprises: (1) a stator of barrel shape having a circular cavity, a bottom, a lateral structure, a group of first ports being spaced longitudinally along the lateral structure, and a group of second ports being evenly spaced apart on the bottom around the axis of the stator at the same distance from said axis, the number of the second ports being n multiple of that of the first ports wherein n is an integer of 1 or larger; (2) a rotor constructed by a hollow shaft section and a core section within said hollow shaft section, said hollow shaft section having a lateral structure accommodating a plurality of top openings that are longitudinally spaced apart and a bottom end accommodating a plurality of bottom openings that are evenly spaced apart around the axis of the hollow shaft at the same distance from said axis as the distance of the second ports from the axis of the stator, said core structure accommodating a plurality of flow passages that connect the top openings to the corresponding bottom openings; (3) the rotor being assembled in the circular cavity of the stator and a plurality of ring structures being sandwiched in-between the lateral exterior surface of the hollow shaft section of the rotor and the interior surface of said circular cavity and being longitudinally spaced apart, two adjacent ring structures forming one circular groove that is in fluid communication with a corresponding first port of the stator and a corresponding top opening of the rotor, the rotor being rotatable about the axis of said circular cavity, the junction between the exterior surface of the bottom end of the rotor and the interior surface of the bottom of the circular cavity of the stator forming a leak-proof contact with an exception of the bottom openings of the rotor which are in fluid communication with the corresponding second ports of the stator when a stepwise rotation of the rotor is properly indexed, each flow passage constantly being fluidly communicated with a corresponding first port, a top opening, and a bottom opening to form a constant flow path that contains the same fluid regardless of rotation, each second port of the stator receiving a different fluid when the second port is switched away from the currently engaged bottom opening to the adjacent bottom opening by a stepwise rotation, simultaneous diversion of multiple fluids being thus realized.

Flow-diverting rotary valves of multiple paths

A continuous simulated moving bed chromatographic focusing process is disclosed for separating and concentrating multiple components from a complex mixture. Said process comprises a number of zones that are connected in series. An eluent flows unidirectionally along the zones and decreases its desorption strength by sequential dilutions zone after zone. Each zone is detachably installed with a chromatographic column and the columns are periodically relocated one zone upstream. Multiple components of a sample are introduced into a downstream zone, absorbed on the column in the zone, brought zone by zone upstream by column relocations, and selectively desorbed from different zones to get separation. A component desorbed from one zone is reabsorbed by the column in the adjacent downstream zone and is again brought back to said zone by column relocation. Said component is thus retained between said zone and said adjacent downstream zone and is accumulated by continuous sample feeding and repeatedly column relocation.

Simulated moving bed chromatographic focusing

A cartridge holder includes a holder body having a cavity along a longitudinal axis of the holder body. A floating screw has a longitudinal axis and a hole through the length of the floating screw. The floating screw is adapted to engage with the cavity in such a way that the floating screw is movable relative to the holder body along the longitudinal axis of the holder body. But rotary movement of the floating screw around the longitudinal axis of the holder body is confined by a restriction of the cavity. An outlet unit having a stem with a central hole and a length greater than that of the floating screw is adapted to be movably inserted into the hole of the floating screw, so that a first end of the outlet unit extends out of the hole and a second end of the outlet unit is engaged with the cavity. An end cap is provided to engage with the cavity. In use a cartridge is placed inside the cavity of the holder body between the end cap and the outlet unit. The floating screw can be screwed onto the endfitting by turning the holder body and, in the meantime, the outlet unit is pushed toward the endfitting so that a zero dead volume connection is achieved. Thus, the cartridge holder fits to all brands of column endfittings by self-adjusting the configuration of its connection unit. The cartridge holder also can be modified to connect a tubing directly to an endfitting.

Direct screw-on cartridge holder with self-adjustable connection

The titled apparatus mainly comprises an outer casting member having a hollow frustum channel lined detachably by a flexible sheet, an inner casting member having an exterior lateral wall of frustum shape being placed within the sheet-lined channel of the outer casting member, a gel slab sandwiched concentrically in the space between the interior wall of the sheet-lined channel and the exterior lateral wall of the inner casting member, and a method to expose the entire gel by first slipping off the outer casting member from the flexible sheet, then peeling off the flexible sheet from the gel slab, and then taking the entire gel slab off from the inner casting member. The apparatus provides a vertical electrophoresis means for both agarose gel electrophoresis and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with the advantages of large sample capacity, higher sensitivity, short analysis time, and simple operation.

Cup-shaped vertical slab gel electrophoresis apparatus

A new type of guard cartridge has been provided to prevent contamination of liquid chromatography (LC) columns by particulate and soluble contaminants. The cartridge is prepared by packing an empty tube with a chromatographic stationary phase and the packed tube is then sealed on both ends with porus sheets held in place by two collars. The cartridge gives minimum disturbance on column performance and significantly decreases the cost of production.

Growing community of inventors

Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, United States of America

Qi-Feng Ma