Amersham Biosciences (Sv) Corp

Proteinsimple

Molecular Dynamics Limited

Robert T Loder, Jr

David John Roach

Richard F Johnston

Stevan Bogdan Jovanovich

Dennis W Harris

Thomas M Armstrong

Tom Weisan Yang

Roger A O'Neill

Peter B Vander Horn

Ezra Van Gelder

Bee C Liang

An automated assay system is described with stations for placement of materials to be used in an assay of materials inside capillaries and an automated gripper for manipulating capillaries. The system includes a separation and immobilization station where reactions inside the capillaries take place and a detector station where photoemissions from the capillary reactions are detected. The photoemissions from the capillaries may be displayed as line graphs or in columns of a pseudo-gel image resembling the familiar Western gel blot. An automated control system has a user interface by which an operator can select a run protocol and define the locations of samples and reagents to be used in the protocol run: Following the setup the control system will cause the automated system to execute the protocol, then display the results in a selected display format.

Automated micro-volume assay system

An automated assay system is described with stations for placement of materials to be used in an assay of materials inside capillaries and an automated gripper for manipulating capillaries. The system includes a separation and immobilization station where reactions inside the capillaries take place and a detector station where photoemissions from the capillary reactions are detected. The photoemissions from the capillaries may be displayed as line graphs or in columns of a pseudo-gel image resembling the familiar Western gel blot. An automated control system has a user interface by which an operator can select a run protocol and define the locations of samples and reagents to be used in the protocol run. Following the setup the control system will cause the automated system to execute the protocol, then display the results in a selected display format.

An apparatus for filling and cleaning channels and inlet ports of a microchip substrate is disclosed. A device of the apparatus comprising an array of tubes is inserted into each of the inlet ports of the microchip. The array of tubes of the device comprises a plurality of pressure tubes, surrounded by a plurality of vacuum tubes. In conjunction with this, pressurized solutions such as matrix or wash are introduced into common openings on the microchip that provide a passage to microchannels of the microchip with the use of pressure tip injectors of the apparatus. As matrix or wash solutions are pumped through the common openings and microchannels of the microchip substrate, wash solutions are pumped through the plurality of pressure tubes and everything is vacuumed through the plurality of vacuum tubes surrounding the plurality of pressure tubes. Various reservoirs of solutions are selected and allowed to flow by proper valve actuation. This process can be performed manually or easily automated by utilizing appropriate valves and control hardware/software.

Apparatus and method for filling and cleaning channels and inlet ports in microchips used for biological analysis

A substrate with a plurality of microchannels is movably deployed with other movable objects that will load sample into the microchannels, stimulate molecular migration, read the results of the migration, remove and replace the substrate, and prepare for a new run. The other objects include a gripper for engaging and moving the substrate, an electrode array of fine wires suitable for fitting into the microchannels for electromigration, and a scanning detector for reading migration results. A sequence of automatic operations is established so that one substrate after another may be moved into position, loaded with sample, stimulated for molecular migration, read with a beam, and then removed and replaced with a fresh substrate.

Robotic microchannel bioanalytical instrument

A fluorescence detection scanner and method employing a fiberoptic collector, positioned adjacent to the scanning plane of the excitation beam, with a light collecting surface which is oriented to reject back-scattered excitation light from the incident surface of the sample support. The scanning plane of the excitation beam is off normal relative to the incident surface of the sample support and the light collecting surface is located within the area defined by the resulting acute angle of incidence. The light collecting surface is angled away from the location at which the incident excitation beam intersects the surface of the sample support so that back-scattered excitation light does not enter the optical fibers. The orientation of the light collector results in a four to five-fold decrease in excitation-light background without attenuation of the fluorescence emitted by the sample. Long-pass interference filters, selected to reject the excitation wavelength, are located at the input and output surfaces of the fiberoptic light collector to further reduce background excitation light. Multiple fluorophores are discriminated by sequentially scanning the sample with a different interchangeable narrow bandpass filter for each fluorophore. Internal fluorescence standards in the sample are used to determine filter efficiencies for each label in each filter image and the quantity of each fluorophore is computed by linear analysis. Increased detector sensitivity allows linear quantitation of multiple fluorophores in the femto-mole range.

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Robert T Loder, Jr