Method and apparatus for incubation of a liquid reagent and target spots on a microarray substrate
AssigneePackard Bioscience B.V.
InventorsMack J. Schermer, C. Todd Lombardo, Robert Milkowski, Donald Regan, Paul St. Cyr
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for incubating a liquid reagent with target spots on a microarray substrate. A deformable cover is placed over the surface of the microarray substrate having the target spots with the liquid reagent between the microarray substrate and the deformable cover, and a device is used to apply a force to the deformable cover.
Claims28
A method for incubating a liquid reagent with target spots on a first surface of a microarray substrate, comprising:
- confining the liquid reagent in a space between a deformable cover having a gasket and the first surface of the microarray substrate;
- applying at least first and second forces to the deformable cover, wherein the first and second forces compress the casket to seal the liquid reagent in the space;
- and
- altering the magnitude of the first and second forces to agitate the liquid reagent while maintaining as substantially constant a value equal to the sum of the first force and the second force so that the gasket maintains the seal of the liquid reagent in the space.
An apparatus for incubating a liquid reagent with target spots on a first surface of a microarray substrate, comprising:
- means for confining the liquid reagent in a space between a deformable cover having a gasket and the first surface of the substrate;
- means for applying at least first and second forces to the deformable cover, wherein the first and second forces compress the gasket to seal the liquid reagent in the space;
- and
- means for altering the magnitude of the first and second forces to agitate the liquid reagent while maintaining as substantially constant a value equal to the sum of the first force and the second force so that the gasket maintains the seal of the liquid reagent in the space.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.