US 11,940,385 B2
Apparatus for conducting continuous interleaved assaying in a multi-well plate
Charles M. Clinton, Clarksburg, MD (US); Eli N. Glezer, Chevy Chase, MD (US); Sharon West, Rockville, MD (US); George Sigal, Rockville, MD (US); Carl Stevens, Silver Spring, MD (US); and Michael L. Vock, Vienna, VA (US)
Assigned to Meso Scale Technologies, LLC., Rockville, MD (US)
Filed by MESO SCALE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC., Gaithersburg, MD (US)
Filed on Feb. 7, 2019, as Appl. No. 16/270,062.
Application 16/270,062 is a division of application No. 12/422,081, filed on Apr. 10, 2009, granted, now 10,203,286.
Claims priority of provisional application 61/123,975, filed on Apr. 11, 2008.
Prior Publication US 2019/0187060 A1, Jun. 20, 2019
Int. Cl. G01N 35/00 (2006.01); G01N 21/69 (2006.01); G01N 21/76 (2006.01); G01N 35/02 (2006.01); G01N 35/04 (2006.01); G01N 35/10 (2006.01)
CPC G01N 21/76 (2013.01) [G01N 21/69 (2013.01); G01N 35/0092 (2013.01); G01N 35/028 (2013.01); G01N 2035/00524 (2013.01); G01N 2035/0425 (2013.01); G01N 35/1079 (2013.01); Y10T 436/114165 (2015.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus for conducting luminescence assays in a multi-well plate, the apparatus comprising:
a light detection subsystem comprising a light detector;
a liquid handling subsystem comprising a pipetting system for delivering liquids to or removing liquids from wells of the multi-well plate;
a plate handling subsystem comprising one or more plate elevators for moving the multi-well plate; and
a computer configured to control said apparatus to process assay samples in different wells of the multi-well plate by a continuous interleaved process,
wherein the computer is configured, during the continuous interleaved process, to control the apparatus to a) add a first sample to a first well, b) incubate contents of the first well, and c) add a reagent to the first well, and to perform a repetition of steps a), b), and c) in a second well, the computer configured to control the apparatus to perform said repetition of step a) after the sample is added to the first well in step a) and before the contents of the first well have completed incubation in step b),
wherein the computer is configured to control a plate holder during incubation of contents of the first well or the second well to shake the multi-well plate continuously unless a pipetting probe of the apparatus is accessing a well of the multi-well plate or an electrochemiluminescence signal is being measured.