Carrier holding micro-substances, system suspending such carriers apparatus for manipulating such carriers and method of controlling positions of such carriers
AssigneePrecision System Science Co., Ltd.
InventorsHideji Tajima, Yoshiro Okami
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Carriers hold remote-acting bodies which can be manipulated by a remote force, and also hold a micro-substance which is a target substance of an assay. The remote-acting bodies are manipulated in order to control the positions of the micro-substances, so as to execute assays for various target substances efficiently, at low cost, easily, and reliably. Various aspects of interest include the carriers which hold the micro-substances, a system suspending the carriers, an apparatus for manipulating the carriers, and a method of controlling the position of the carriers.
Claims8
A method of controlling a position of carriers holding micro-substances comprises the steps of:
- pouring remote-acting bodies which can be positionally manipulated by a remote force, micro-substances including a target substance of an assay, and carriers having surfaces with a plurality of holes, cavities, concavities or convexities that are sized to be capable of holding the micro-substances and the remote-acting bodies, into a liquid in accordance with a predetermined order,
- making the remote-acting bodies and the micro-substances be held in the holes, cavities, concavities or convexities in the surfaces of the carriers by agitating the remote-acting bodies, the micro-substances, the carriers, and the liquid, and
- controlling positions of the carriers holding the micro-substances and the remote-acting bodies in the surfaces thereof by applying a remote force to the remote-acting bodies,
- the pouring comprising pouring sterilized reductive enzyme into the liquid in addition to the remote-acting bodies, the micro-substances, and the carriers, and
- comprising selecting the carriers to be sterilized cellulose-carriers, selecting the liquid to be a sterilized liquid culture medium, selecting the remote-acting bodies to be magnetic particles, and selecting the remote force to be a magnetic field.
A method of controlling a position of carriers holding micro-substances comprises the steps of:
- pouring remote-acting bodies which can be positionally manipulated by a remote force, micro-substances including a target substance of an assay, and carriers having surfaces with a plurality of holes, cavities, concavities or convexities that are sized to be capable of holding the micro-substances and the remote-acting bodies, into a liquid or a gas in accordance with a predetermined order,
- making the remote-acting bodies and the micro-substances be independently held in the holes, cavities, concavities or convexities in the surfaces of the carriers by simultaneously agitating the remote-acting bodies, the micro-substances, the carriers and the liquid or gas,
- controlling positions of the carriers holding the micro-substances and the remote-acting bodies in the surfaces thereof by applying a remote force to the remote-acting bodies,
- selecting the carriers to be cellulose-carriers having therein the plurality of cavities, concavities, convexities or holes,
- selecting the remote-acting bodies to be magnetic particles,
- selecting the remote force to be a magnetic field,
- controlling the magnetic field so as to control the positions of the carriers in a manner which causes filtering of the micro-substances through separation from the liciuid or gas of the carriers with the remote-acting bodies and micro-substances held thereto,
- carrying out the agitating in a manner that includes using a mechanical force;
- and
- configuring the carriers so that the holes, cavities, concavities or convexities are large enough to allow the magnetic particles to undergo orientation therein in response to the magnetic field.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.