Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting – deodorizing – preser – Analyzer – structured indicator – or manipulative laboratory... – Sample mechanical transport means in or for automated...
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-20
2001-10-30
Snay, Jeffrey (Department: 1743)
Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting, deodorizing, preser
Analyzer, structured indicator, or manipulative laboratory...
Sample mechanical transport means in or for automated...
C422S105000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06309600
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention pertains to an apparatus and methods for transporting a massive number of droplets of liquid and for performing microchemical operations on these droplets, the operations including mixing, dilution, concentration, heating, cooling, filtering, and analyzing, where the analyzing may include chemical, biochemical, optical, or other physical analyses.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Chemistry on the micro-scale, involving the reaction and subsequent analysis of quantities of reagents or analytes of order microliters or smaller, is an increasingly important aspect of the development of new substances in the pharmaceutical and other industries (e.g., synthesis and analysis of new conductive polymers, phosphors, superconductors, etc.). Such reaction and analysis must accommodate vast libraries of compounds to be reacted and analyzed under various conditions. Significant problems associated with current technologies as applied to chemical analysis of vast numbers (potentially on the order of hundreds of thousands or millions per day) of compounds include the problem of conveying analytes from well plates in which libraries of compounds are kept to regions of reaction and analysis, potential contamination of the transport medium, and the sheer size of the facility required to handle vast numbers of compounds and reactions.
Existing technology applies 96-well plates containing quantities on the order of 1 milliliter of liquid compound per well, and, generally, envisions chemical reactions and analysis on flat, two-dimensional surfaces such as silicon chips. In addition to the parallel processing of liquid samples provided by chip technology, a method is required to perform serial steps of liquid sampling, transport, and microchemical analysis.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for transporting one or more droplets of a liquid. The apparatus has a reservoir for containing a quantity of the liquid and a flexible member for receiving the droplet or droplets of liquid from the reservoir, with the droplets adhering to the flexible member by virtue of the surface adhesion of the liquid. The flexible member may be a fiber or a ribbon, and a portion of the flexible member may be formed at least temporarily into an enclosure for encapsulating at least one droplet of the liquid.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for storing or analyzing a plurality of liquid droplets. The apparatus has a drum having a substantially cylindrical surface and a plurality of wells disposed within the substantially cylindrical surface. The apparatus also has a dispenser for injecting the plurality of droplets into the wells according to a predetermined schedule and may have an analyzer for characterizing at least one chemical property of the droplets. The dispenser may be a flexible transport member wrapped onto the drum in such a manner as to position no more than one droplet of liquid in each well of the drum.
In accordance with other aspects of the present invention, methods are provided for transporting, sampling, mixing, concentrating, diluting, heating, cooling, and analyzing liquid samples by extracting a volume of the liquid by means of the apparatus discussed above. Analysis of physical and chemical properties of the samples may be performed in series or in substantial parallelism.
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BioTrove, Inc.
Bromberg & Sunstein LLP
Snay Jeffrey
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