Sample handling system with dosing device and thermal cycler

Abstract

The invention concerns a sample handling system and a process for the handling of chemical or biological samples, particularly body fluids such as blood, saliva, secretions, etc. or tissue samples, and more specifically for the processing of samples for DNA analysis by means of PCR, comprising a dosing device with a receiving plate (12), with the receiving plate (12) being configured in an essentially horizontal position in a plane defined by a first and a second axis (X, Y); having at least one working arm (14, 16, 18) that is movable in the direction of the first axis (X) relative to the receiving plate (12), preferably along a first edge (13) of the receiving plate (12), and wherein the working arm (14, 16, 18) extends along the second axis (Y) above the receiving plate (12), at least one pipetting mechanism (30) that is movable in the direction of the second axis (Y) is mounted on the working arm (14, 16, 18), the pipetting mechanism (30) comprises at least one pipetting channel (32) that is movable in the direction of a third axis (Z) orthogonal to the direction of the first and second axes (X, Y) and has a pipette tip (33) mounted or mountable thereon, and said pipetting mechanism (30) is configured so as to dispense or aspirate liquid into or out of a sample vessel; and at least one thermal cycler (50, 52) provided in the area of the receiving plate (12). According to the invention, the thermal cycler (50, 52) should be configured on the receiving plate (12) in such a way that the pipetting mechanism (30) is movable in a position above the sample vessels in the thermal cycler (50, 52), making a pipetting step possible. Opening/closing of a closing device (54) of the thermal cycler takes place in accordance with the steps of a PCR process, and pipetting of components into sample vessels in the thermal cycler takes place in accordance with the setting of the closing device (54).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.