Sample pretreatment device

A sample pretreatment device, comprising:

• a container storage section capable of holding a plurality of containers including a first well plate in which wells are formed in a matrix form with N rows and M columns (where both N and M are integers equal to or greater than two), and a second well plate in which N elongated wells whose length corresponds to the M wells in one row of the first well plate are formed, or in which M elongated wells whose length corresponds to the N wells in one column of the first well plate are formed;
• a dispensing section including a working platform on which the containers can be placed, a pipette unit including an M-channel tip corresponding to the M wells in one row of the first well plate or an N-channel tip corresponding to the N wells in one column of the first well plate, as well as a pump unit configured to suction and eject a liquid from and into a container placed on the working platform through the pipette unit;
• a transfer section configured to transfer the containers between the container storage section and the working platform;
• and
• a controller configured to control an operation of the dispensing section and the transfer section so as to perform following operations:
• a transferring operation in which the second well plate in which reagent solutions for a pretreatment are respectively contained in L elongated wells (where L is an integer equal to or greater than two as well as equal to or less than N or M) and L pieces of the first well plates which are empty, prepared in the container storage section, are individually transferred from the container storage section to the working platform;
• a reagent-solution-dispensing operation in which a dispensing operation is performed for each of the L prepared reagent solutions on the working platform, where the dispensing operation includes suctioning one of the L reagent solutions contained in the elongated wells of the second well plate containing the reagent solutions and dispensing the suctioned reagent solution into the wells of one of the L first well plates which are empty, using the M-channel tip or the N-channel tip;
• a sample-injecting operation, performed on the working platform, in which samples are individually injected into the wells of the first well plate in which a first reagent solution is already dispensed;
• and a mixed-solution-injecting operation, performed on the working platform after the reagent-solution-dispensing operation, in which a mixed solution of the first reagent solution and a sample is suctioned from each well of the first well plate containing the mixed solution and injected into one of the wells of the first well plate in which a second reagent solution to be used in a second stage of a pretreatment is already dispensed, after the first well plate containing the second reagent solution is transferred from the container storage section to the working platform in the case where the first well plate containing the second reagent solution is already returned from the working platform to the container storage section.