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US 8,743,359 B2Granted
Optical surveillance of mixing and separation
AssigneeRoche Molecular Systems, Inc.
InventorsGeza Burghardt, Pirow Engelbrecht, Andreas Gisler, Nicholas Hastings, Rolf Schneebeli, David Roger Tegerdine
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a non-invasive method for surveilling mixing and separation of a suspension in an analytical system using solid phase particles for separation of an analyte by measuring particle distribution with a camera attached to a pipetting device.
Claims14
A method of surveilling mixing and separation of a suspension comprising solid phase particles, comprising the steps of
- mixing or separating a suspension comprising solid phase particles from a liquid in a vessel, wherein said vessel comprises an open top end and a closed bottom;
- illuminating said vessel with a light source;
- detecting light illuminated by said light source with a detecting device, wherein said detecting device is positioned above said vessel;
- using measurement of light detected by said detecting device, using a control unit for calculating particle distribution of said solid phase particles present in said liquid,
- wherein for surveiling of mixing, the control unit is programmed to identify vessels as invalid wherein the detected light is above a certain predefined threshold indicating that the particle distribution is insufficient, and
- wherein for surveiling of separation, the control unit is programmed to identify vessels as invalid wherein the detected light is below a certain predefined threshold indicating that the particle separation is insufficient.
3 more elements
An analytical system comprising
- a separation device, wherein said separation device comprises a separation station comprising magnets which can be moved vertically, said separation station comprising light sources,
- at least one vessel, wherein said at least one vessel comprises an open top end and a closed bottom and wherein said at least one vessel comprises magnetic or magnetizable particles in a liquid;
- and wherein said light sources are located below said at least one vessel;
- a pipetting unit for aspirating and dispensing said magnetic particles in said liquid;
- a detecting device, located above said vessel when the pipette tip is moved away from the vessel, wherein said light sources illuminate said vessels;
- a control unit programmed to calculate particle distribution of said magnetic particles in said liquid using measurement of light by said detecting device and for surveiling of mixing, to identify vessels as invalid wherein the detected light is above a certain predefined threshold indicating that the particle distribution is insufficient, and for surveiling of separation, to identify vessels as invalid wherein the detected light is below a certain predefined threshold indicating that the particle separation is insufficient.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.