JP2000088715A - Gridding pin - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate attachment to and detachment from a pipet unit and to permit application to any given arrangement by providing a tight-contact holding part capable of easy crimping to a pipet only by a pressing action. SOLUTION: A gridding pin is formed of both a stainless gridding pin main body 2 and a tight-contact holding part 1 bringing part of a pipet tip into physically close contact by a mechanical pressing action. In addition, the tip of the gridding pin is designed in a sharp needle shape and is designed so that biochemical matter adhered to the pin can be arranged at a target location by the contact between its minute bottom part and a biological sample even in a minute place.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for producing a replica of a biological sample such as a copy operation of Escherichia coli and arranging colony components in a specific form for the purpose of separately analyzing the colony components. The present invention relates to a sharpened pin-shaped device made of a hard material for collecting and separately placing or arranging a substance, that is, a gridding pin.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, in the field of biochemistry centering on molecular biology, a biological group often called a colony is used for experiments. In order to preserve these colonies efficiently, transplantation and preservation of bacteria, which is called colony copying, is frequently performed. In this method, the tip is efficiently contacted with a part of Escherichia coli and collected, and a tip made of a hard material with a needle is used for the purpose of contacting a part of the cells again with another sterile medium or the like. A device called a grid-shaped gridding pin is routinely employed.

[0003] As another technique of molecular biology, a technique of frequently selecting a colony having an affinity only for a target sample from a large number of colony groups has been used. This method is called blotting, and as a specific operation procedure, a large number of colony groups are arranged in a pinpoint orderly and orderly in an extremely fine area on a specific membrane, and then analyzed.

[0004] As a means for collecting a biological sample used for these purposes and arranging it at a specific position, a pin having a fine tip made of a hard material, which is now called a gridding pin, is used. Frequently used. These gridding pins are useful because they can efficiently collect very small amounts of biological samples such as Escherichia coli in an Escherichia coli library only by a quick contact operation, and can be washed and reused after use. It has been adopted as an instrument.

[0005] In addition, since these gridding pins are made of a material capable of realizing mechanically high positional accuracy, a large number of gridding pins are formed in a unitary or unit shape in which a plurality of gridding pins are regularly arranged, and widely automated. It is being used to process large amounts of samples in equipment.

That is, when expressed by a specific number, 96
Alternatively, a dedicated device for automatically performing the same operation repeatedly by automatically mechanically controlling 384 integrated gridding pins designed and manufactured in an orderly manner has been developed and useful results have been obtained. I have.

[0007] However, in these gridding pins of the dedicated gridding device, a gridding pin having a shape exclusive for the gridding device must be used.
Lack of applicability, such as the inability to use gridding pins other than the shape or number specified by the device, and the inability to quickly operate the gridding pins manually using one gridding pin. Had many drawbacks.

In particular, in the case of the conventional gridding pins, pipettes such as a pipette (3) or an eight-piece pipette (5) which are frequently used in biological work and become an essential tool in a laboratory can be easily prepared. Cannot be mounted and is not suitable for ordinary small sample experiments, expensive equipment is required to enable efficient placement in blotting work, and the array that can be produced is also an integrated gridding pin unit Had a fatal drawback, such as being able to realize only fixed arrays that depended on.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above, the present invention relates to a gridding pin for an organism to collect or place a biological sample so that it can be crimped to a device called a pipette by pressing only. By newly providing the holding portion (1), not only a conventional dedicated gridding device but also a pipette or an automated pipetting device can be easily attached / detached to / from a pipette unit and can be applied to an arbitrary arrangement. This was done to provide a wide gridding pin.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The purpose of the present invention for achieving the above object is to provide a bonding pin according to the present invention, which is capable of easily pressing a pipette (3) by pressing only. (1) is newly provided.

In other words, the gridding pin must be made of a hard metal because the tip must be sharpened to prevent unnecessary contaminants from being adsorbed, and must not be deformed by physical pressing action or contact. It has become normal. For this reason, in mounting the pipette tip (3) made of resin for the purpose of mounting a pipette tip that is used very frequently in a biology laboratory, the pipette (3) is softer than the gridding pin. 2) were easily deformed and degraded and destroyed, and the two could not be functionally and efficiently adhered only by a simple pressing action.

Therefore, in consideration of an efficient and appropriate attachment / detachment method of the gridding pin and the pipette (3),
By newly providing the gripping pin with a contact holding portion (1) for bringing the pipette (3) into close contact with only the pressing action, the above-mentioned drawbacks have been overcome and an efficient and multifunctional gridding pin has been developed. The present invention has been completed. .

[0013] The gridding pin in the present invention is made of a hard material that can collect a biological sample by pressing against the biological sample.
It is not limited to any structure. Further, the shape of the tip portion and the size of the outer diameter are not limited, but an outer diameter of 0.01 to 1 mm is particularly preferable.

Further, the close contact holding portion (1) referred to in the present invention is a connection portion particularly if the gridding pin is positionally fixed to the pipette (3) by at least a physical pressing action or a manual holding operation. Although not limited to the wearing method, if only the close contact holding portion (1) is held, the entire gridding pin must also be held. Further, as the adhesion method, a fixing method by deformation of a resin by a pressing method is preferable. Further, it is preferable that the pipette (3) can be detached from the pipette (3) by a pressing action in a direction opposite to the pressing method.

The material of the contact holding portion (1) is not particularly limited as long as it has a function of bringing the pipette into close contact with the pipette (3) by a pressing action. A resin material such as polypropylene or polycarbonate which is in close contact with (3) is preferred.

Further, in the present invention, in the contact between the gripping pin holding portion (1) and the gridding pin (2) and the close contact between the holding portion (1) and the separate holding portion, the gridding pin ( It is preferable that the degree of adhesion between 2) and the gripping pin contact holding portion (1) is higher.

In the present invention, having the contact holding portion (1) means that at least the contact holding portion (1) and the gridding pin portion (2) are in close contact with each other when the gridding pin is used for the intended use. For example, in a stage before using the gridding pin in close contact with the pipette (3), the gridding pin may be spatially separated from the close contact holding portion (1).

The pipette referred to in the present invention is not limited to a disposable pipette tip, as long as it has a function of holding a liquid and attaching a liquid to a container for measuring and dispensing, the material, the volume and the type of the pipette tip to be attached. Although not intended, a pipette of a type in which a pipette tip made of a resin material is attached is desirable.

The pipette tip referred to in the present invention means a specific material of a pipette (3) as long as a specific part thereof is brought into close contact with the pipette by a pressing method and has a function of allowing a predetermined liquid to exist in a space inside the pipette tip. Although there is no particular limitation on the volume, structure, and the like, a pipette tip made of a resin that holds a liquid on the order of several tens of microliters is particularly desirable.

The term "part of the pipette tip" as used herein means at least a part of the pipette tip that includes a portion of the pipette tip that is in close contact with the pipette, the proportion of the entire pipette tip, its constituent parts, material, size, etc. It is not limited to anything.

The pressing action in the present invention does not limit the pressing method and the magnitude of the pressure at all as long as the two are in close contact with each other by the action of the pressure generated by physically pressing. However, in particular, a manual pressing force that pushes the pipette tip with a pipette to bring them into close contact with each other or a mechanical pressing force that an automatic pipetting machine that automatically mounts and dispenses the pipette automatically mounts the pipette tip Is preferred.

[0022]

According to the present invention, in addition to supplying a gridding pin for efficiently performing operations such as copying of an E. coli library using a gridding pin in an apparatus dedicated to a specific gridding pin, it is also possible to provide a biological grid. In the field, even in a dispenser automated using a pipette or a pipette tip widely distributed, a high-performance gridding pin that can be mounted on such a dispenser is provided, and finally many instruments and devices are provided. It is an object of the present invention to provide a gridding pin having a wide range of applications applicable to a vehicle.

Further, by having the contact holding portion (1) which is brought into close contact with the pressing action, even when the contact holding portion (1) is worn out by use many times, only the contact holding portion (1) is replaced. Thus, there is also an advantage that the gridding pin can be easily and accurately adhered to the pipette or the like again and endures repeated use.

[0024]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited only to this embodiment.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a gridding pin showing an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the gridding pin is a stainless steel gridding pin body (2) and a part of a pipette tip (a part of the pipette tip at the top 1.7 cm of a 25 micro pipette tip manufactured by Cosmotech Co., Ltd.). (A part of the pipette tip cut into pieces), and a close contact holding section (1) in which the pipette tips are physically contacted by a mechanical pressing action.

Further, the tip of the gridding pin is designed to have a sharp needle shape, and even in a minute place, a slight bottom portion comes into contact with a biological sample so that a biochemical substance attached to the pin can be targeted. It is designed so that it can be placed in a position.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a gridding pin mounted on an automatic dispenser of a system for dispensing by mounting a pipette tip according to one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the pipette section for mounting the pipette tips has a 12-row structure, and has a structure in which 12 pipette tips can be mounted at a time. Twelve new gridding pins can be mounted by the same operation as the method of mounting a normal pipette tip.

In the embodiment of FIG. 2, 96 gridding pins of the present invention are prepared, and a commercially available pipette dispenser (BISTEQUE 20 manufactured by Cosmotec Co., Ltd.) is used.
3: 12 brands at a time. 9 commercially available
The Escherichia coli library collected in the 6-well plate was collected using the gridding pins, and separately contacted on a fresh medium to copy the E. coli library. Then, as a result of verifying the occurrence of E. coli with a microscope,
The E. coli library could be copied with a success rate of 100% (96 of 96 wells).

In these operations, all operations are automatically performed by the function of the pipette attaching / detaching mechanism controlled by the machine. For this reason, work that was conventionally difficult to mount or difficult to achieve positional accuracy could be easily realized.

[0030]

Comparative Example A mounting operation of a gridding pin according to the present invention was performed under the same conditions except that a gridding pin having the same specification as that of the embodiment except that it did not have the close contact holding portion (1) was used. At that time, the gridding pin could not be mounted on the pipette portion of the automatic dispensing device, and the mounting operation could not be performed.

[0031]

As is clear from the description of the above embodiment, according to the present invention, it is not necessary to use a special device or device for exclusive use of a gridding pin, and a biochemical sample can be placed in a predetermined place even in a usual dispensing device. There is the advantage that gridding pins can be employed for placement purposes.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a gridding pin according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing how a gridding pin according to an embodiment of the present invention is attached to a pipetting device compatible with a pipette tip.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a gridding pin.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a mechanical automatic dispenser having a pipette (5) having a 12-pipetted pipette head when the gridding pin of the present invention is mounted.

[Brief description of reference numerals]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Gridding pin contact holding part 2 Gridding pin main body 3 Pipette 4 Tip detachment mechanism 5 8-unit pipette

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] November 17, 1998 (1998.11.
17)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Brief description of drawings

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a gridding pin according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a mechanical automatic dispensing machine having a head for mounting a 12-piece pipette (5) according to an embodiment of the present invention when a gridding pin main body (2) is mounted.

[Brief description of reference numerals] 1 Close contact holding section 2 Gridding pin main body 3 Pipette 4 Tip detachment mechanism 5 12 pipette pipette

[Procedure amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0016

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

In the present invention, the contact between the gripping pin holding portion (1) and the gridding pin main body (2) and the contact between the contact holding portion (1) and the separate holding portion are different. It is preferable that the degree of adhesion between the main body (2) and the adhesion holding portion (1) of the gridding pin is higher.

[Procedure amendment 3]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0017

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

In the present invention, having the contact holding portion (1) means that at least the contact holding portion (1) and the gridding pin are used when the gridding pin is used for the intended use.
It is only necessary that the main body (2) be in close contact with the pipette (3). For example, in a stage before the gridding pin is used in close contact with the pipette (3), the gridding pin is spatially connected to the close contact holding portion (1). It doesn't matter if you are away from

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A gridding pin having a close contact holding portion (1) separately held by a fixture by a pressing action. 2. The gridding pin according to claim 1, wherein the close contact holding portion (1) is in close contact with the gridding pin body (2) by a pressing action. 3. The gridding pin according to claim 1, wherein the contact holding section is a pipette tip or a part of the pipette tip. 4. The gridding pin according to claim 1, wherein the gripping pin is held by a pipette or a pipette for automatically pipetting by a close contact holding portion.