Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Nexus Biosystems, Inc.

Aurora Discovery, Incorporated

Todd N Bennett

Minh Vuong

Javier Humberto Flores

Peter J Coassin

Alec Tate Harootunian

Michael Paul Emery

Brian Grot

Philip Emanuel Salzmann

Walter D Niles

David Nicol

Daniel Hale

Huy Nguyen

Tuong Phan

Steve Rodems

Jeff Stack

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

A liquid level sensor comprises a plurality of electrodes arranged in a defined relationship with respect to a container filling trajectory, a signal generator coupled to one or more of the plurality of electrodes, a signal receiver coupled to one or more of the plurality of electrodes, and a sensing circuit coupled to at least one of the signal generator and signal receiver. The sensing circuit is configured to produce an output indicative of electrical resistance between at least one pair of the plurality of electrodes. The sensing circuit may be associated with the signal receiver and/or with the signal generator.

Method for sensing levels of conductive liquids

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

Sensor for levels of conductive liquids

Growing community of inventors

Philadelphia, PA, United States of America

Todd N Bennett