Cell picking device
AssigneeShimadzu Corporation
InventorsAkari Takeda, Yoshitake Yamamoto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cell picking device includes a supporter that supports a rack having a plurality of holes for holding a plurality of pipette tips, a sucker used to suck a sample, a driver that moves the sucker in an up-and-down direction and moves the sucker and the supporter relative to each other in a horizontal direction, and a controller that controls the driver such that, any pipette tip out of the plurality of pipette tips held by the rack is attached to the sucker by movement of the sucker in the up-and-down direction and the sucker is moved to a position outwardly of the rack by movement of the sucker and the supporter relative to each other.
Claims4
A method of operating a cell picking device,
- the cell picking device comprising:
- a supporter that supports a rack having a plurality of holes for holding a plurality of pipette tips;
- a sucker used to suck a sample;
- a driver that moves the sucker in an up-and-down direction and moves the sucker and the supporter relative to each other in a horizontal direction;
- and
- a controller that controls the driver,
- the rack including a first strip-shaped region extending in a column direction between two holes adjacent to each other in the column direction, and a second strip-shaped region extending in a row direction between two holes adjacent to each other in the column direction,
- the method comprising:
- moving the sucker such that a tip of the sucker is located above any pipette tip out of the plurality of pipette tips held by the rack:
- attaching the pipette tip to the tip of the sucker by lowering the sucker;
- raising the sucker above the rack such that a lower end of the pipette tip attached to the sucker is located farther downwardly than an upper end of another pipette tip held by the rack;
- moving the sucker to a position outwardly of the rack along and above two strip-shaped regions between the plurality of holes of the rack such that the lower end of the pipette tip traces between the plurality of holes and between the plurality of pipette tips held by the rack, with the lower end of the pipette tip attached to the sucker being located farther downwardly than the upper end of the other pipette tip held by the rack;
- and
- moving the sucker from a position above the rack to a position outwardly of the rack without collision of the pipette tip attached to the sucker with the other pipette tip held by the rack.
A cell picking device comprising:
- a supporter that supports a rack having a plurality of holes for holding a plurality of pipette tips, wherein the rack includes:
- a first strip-shaped region extending in a column direction between two holes adjacent to each other in the column direction, and
- a second strip-shaped region extending in a row direction between two holes adjacent to each other in the column direction;
- a sucker used to suck a sample;
- a driver that moves the sucker in an up-and-down direction and moves the sucker and the supporter relative to each other in a horizontal direction;
- and
- a controller configured to control the driver such that:
- any pipette tip out of the plurality of pipette tips held by the rack is attached to the sucker by movement of the sucker in the up-and-down direction;
- after the pipette tip is attached to the sucker, the sucker is moved to a position outwardly of the rack by movement of the sucker and the supporter relative to each other by:
- raising the sucker above the rack until a lower end of the pipette tip attached to the sucker is located farther downwardly than an upper end of another pipette tip held by the rack;
- and
- moving the sucker along and above the two strip shaped regions between the plurality of holes of the rack to a position outwardly of the rack, such that the lower end of the pipette tip traces between the plurality of holes and between the plurality of pipette tips held by the rack, with the lower end of the pipette tip attached to the sucker being located not above the upper end of the other tip held by the rack but farther downwardly than the upper end of the other pipette tip held by the rack.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.