Anthony D.A. Hansen, Martin J. Pollard, and Joseph M. Jaklevic
Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Engineering Science Department, Human Genome Group, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, Phone: (510) 486-7158, Fax: (510) 486-5857, adhansen@lbl.gov
We describe a modular conveyor-like system for the sequential processing of large numbers of samples in standard microtiter plate formats. The modules have a standard mechanical geometry to allow them to be interconnected with two parallel belts passing through to carry plates from one to the next. Each sequential module picks up the plate, performs a single task with maximum parallelism and minimum mechanical motion, and then places it back down on the moving belt. Modules may be added to or removed from the sequential lines support framing to allow for different biological protocols: modules that are installed yet not required for a particular protocol simply allow the plate to pass through. Microtiter plates are fed in to the conveyor from stacker carrying cassettes that are convenient for general use elsewhere in the laboratory: After processing the output, plates are re-stacked into empty cassettes, and waste plates are discarded. All modules include rinsing and cleaning stations for re-usable tools: no disposables are consumed.
Modules under design at the present time include:
To evaluate the concept in actual use our initial configuration is a plate filler, consisting of the plate fetcher, conveyor system, and multi-tube filler head. The next application will be for PCR setups from cell culture plates or tube racks.
This work was supported by the Director, Office of Energy Research, Office of Health and Environmental Research, Human Genome Program, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.