JP4975359B2 - Method of sealing and separating multiple tubes enclosing a drug discovery sample - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a drug discovery sample storage system used for identifying and storing a large number of samples in the field of drug discovery research and the like. More specifically, the present invention relates to a tube enclosing a drug discovery sample and the tube. The present invention relates to a method of sealing and separating a plurality of tubes enclosing a drug discovery sample in a drug discovery sample storage system having a storage rack that vertically stores 384 pieces in a grid pattern.

Conventionally, in the field of drug discovery research and the like, a solution in which a sample is dissolved is sealed in a tube called a microtube, and a plurality of microtubes, for example, 8 rows and 12 columns, are stored in a storage rack partitioned in a grid pattern. The storage racks were divided into 96 pieces and stored vertically, and stored and transported.
In addition, the storage rack is the same size as the 96 storage racks conforming to the SBS (Society for Biomolecular Screening) standard, and is a smaller microtube, that is, an ultra microtube (hereinafter referred to as “384 tube”). Storage racks having a total number of 384 partitions in 16 rows and 24 columns are also known.
It is also known to seal the open end portion of the 384 tube with a seal member (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).
European Patent Application No. 0904841 (FIG. 1, paragraphs 7-9) EP 1477226 (FIG. 5, paragraphs 3 to 5)

FIG. 21 shows a storage rack 210 for 384 tubes described in Patent Document 1.
The storage rack 210 for 384 tubes has four times the number of storage racks of the same size as the storage rack conforming to the SBS standard that accommodates 96 tubes, that is, 384 cylindrical tubes 212 with a bottom. It is to be stored.
Therefore, since the storage rack 210 for 384 tubes has a shape in which the bottom surface size of the 96 tubes is reduced to almost ¼, the capacity of the sample that can be accommodated has to be reduced.
Further, since the partition wall 219 for forming the storage space 218 partitioned into 16 rows and 24 columns is formed at almost the same height as the rack frame 213 of the storage rack 210 for 384 tubes, The storage area of the 384 tube 212 is reduced by the thickness, and the capacity of the sample that can be stored is extremely limited compared to the 96 tubes.
Moreover, since the shape of the 384 tube 212 is cylindrical, when the opening end portion of the 384 tube 212 is sealed with a sealing material 216 such as an aluminum foil, a lot of the remaining 214 is generated, which is It was an economy.

On the other hand, FIG. 22 shows a part of a sectional view of the 384 tube storage rack 220 described in Patent Document 2.
As in FIG. 21, the 384-tube storage rack 220 is added to the storage rack 220 having the same size as the storage rack 220 compliant with the SBS standard that accommodates 96 tubes, that is, 384 tubes 222. Is to be stored.
Since the 384 tube 222 has a square cylinder shape in cross section, the accommodation volume is increased compared to the 384 tube 212 having the cylindrical shape shown in FIG. 21 described above.
However, in the storage space 228 of the storage rack 220 for 384 tubes, the partition wall 229 extends to the shoulder portion 224 of the 384 tube 222, and the 384 tube 222 is approximately half of the partition wall 229 at the shoulder portion 224. It is widened so as to get on and extends to the upper opening end.
Accordingly, there is almost no gap between the open end portions of the adjacent 384 tubes 222, and each 384 tube is sealed with the sealing material 226 at a time in a state where the 384 tube 222 is accommodated in the storage rack 220 for 384 tubes. It was very difficult to separate them one by one.
If the 384 tube 222 is housed in the 384 tube storage rack 220 when the cutter is used to separate each piece using a cutter (not shown), the blade of the 384 tube 222 is cut by the cutter blade. There has been a concern that the open end portion and the 384 tube storage rack 220 itself may be damaged.

  In the above-described conventional 384 tube, since the sealing degree of the seal was not taken into consideration, there was a concern that the sample enclosed therein would evaporate.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to increase the accommodation volume of the 384 tubes and seal each 384 tube at a time while holding a plurality of 384 tubes in a storage rack, and then open the open end portion of the 384 tubes and storage An object of the present invention is to provide a method for sealing and separating a plurality of tubes enclosing a drug discovery sample that can be separated into individual racks without damaging the rack itself and having excellent sealing performance.

  A method of sealing and separating a plurality of tubes enclosing a drug discovery sample according to claim 1 is a plurality of tubes in which a drug discovery sample is enclosed by chamfering a chamfered portion at an open end and narrowing toward a bottom portion with a square tube shape in cross section. In a state where one tube is inserted into a plurality of compartments formed by grid-like partition walls of a storage rack one by one, a sheet material is covered so as to cover the location where the tube is present, and the tubes are thermally welded. The above-mentioned problems are solved by inserting a cutter blade into a V-shaped space formed by a chamfered portion provided at adjacent open end portions and cutting the tubes apart from each other.

The shape of the chamfered portion described above is not particularly limited. However, in order to enlarge the V-shaped space formed by the adjacent chamfered portions, the opening end portion that is a right angle is angled at an angle of 45 °. So-called C chamfering is preferred.
Moreover, although the material of a tube and a rack is not necessarily limited, a polypropylene (PP) or a polycarbonate (PC) is used suitably.

  And in addition to the invention of Claim 1, the invention which concerns on Claim 2 is equipped with the some blade hung by the width | variety of the said one division on the outer periphery of a cylindrical member in addition to the invention of Claim 1, The above-described problems are further solved.

  Moreover, in addition to the invention of Claim 2, the invention which concerns on Claim 3 has said convex part for cutting depth adjustment in the both ends of the said cylindrical member in addition to the invention of Claim 2, and said above-mentioned. The problem is further solved.

  Furthermore, in addition to the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 3, the invention according to claim 4 further solves the above-described problem by the fact that the sheet material is an aluminum foil. is there.

In addition, this aluminum foil is provided with a heat-welding polyethylene (PE) resin coating on one side of the aluminum foil to improve the adhesion with the open end portion of the tube, and on the opposite side, the air-tightness is increased and aluminum A three-layer laminate structure of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin is used to protect the foil, but the sealing material is not limited to this, and has, for example, a heat-welding property such as polyolefin resin If so, it can be used.
In particular, when a colorless and transparent heat-welding resin is used, it is preferable because the state in the tube can be confirmed without removing the sealing material, that is, without releasing the sealed state of the tube.

According to the method for sealing and separating a plurality of tubes encapsulating a drug discovery sample according to claim 1, the drug discovery sample is encapsulated by applying a chamfered portion to an open end portion that is narrow toward the bottom portion and having a square cross section. In a state where the plurality of tubes are pierced one by one into the plurality of sections formed by the grid-like partition walls of the storage rack, the sheet material is covered so as to cover the existing portions of the tubes, and the tubes are thermally welded for each section. The capacity of the 384 tube is increased by inserting a cutter blade into a V-shaped space formed by a chamfered portion formed at adjacent open end portions of the two and separating the tubes from each other. Each 384 tube is sealed at a time while held in the storage rack, and then separated into individual pieces without damaging the open end of the 384 tube or the storage rack itself. It becomes possible.
In addition, since the V-shaped space guides the movement of the cutter blade, a separate guide for guiding the cutter is not required, and the effect is enormous.

  According to the invention according to claim 2, in addition to the effect of the invention according to claim 1, the cutter is provided with a plurality of blades suspended at a width of one section on the outer periphery of the cylindrical member. By simply rotating the 384 tube accommodated in the rack in the vertical and horizontal directions, the 384 tube accommodated in the storage rack can be separated at a time.

  According to the invention of claim 3, in addition to the effect produced by the invention of claim 2, the cutter has the cut depth adjusting convex portions at both ends of the cylindrical member, thereby providing the cut depth. By simply rotating the adjustment convex part in contact with the rack frame of the storage rack, the appropriate cutting depth of the cutter blade is maintained, and the 384 tube can be quickly moved without damaging the 384 tube or the storage rack itself. , It can be separated accurately and reliably one by one, and the effect is enormous.

  According to the fourth aspect of the invention, in addition to the effects of the first to third aspects, since the sheet material is an aluminum foil, the hermeticity of the 384 tube is increased, and the solution sealed in the 384 tube is improved. Evaporation can be reliably suppressed, and the quality of the drug discovery sample is improved.

  Next, a preferred embodiment of a method for sealing and separating a plurality of tubes encapsulating a drug discovery sample of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  In FIG. 1, 384 tubes 1-2 are stored in all sections of the storage rack 100 for 384 tubes, and the upper surfaces of these 384 tubes 102 are covered with a sealing material 106 such as an aluminum foil. After the end portion 102f is welded by thermal welding, the cutter 120 is used to separate each end portion 102f.

  As apparent from FIG. 1, the rack frame 103 of the 384 tube storage rack 100 is positioned lower than the upper surface of the 384 tube 102 stuck in the 384 tube storage rack 100. It is possible to prevent the 384 tube storage rack 100 from being damaged by mistake when separating each one.

FIG. 2 is a top view of the 384-tube storage rack 100 in a state where four 384 tubes 102 are stuck, as viewed from above.
The storage rack 100 has a grid-like partition wall 109 having a height lower than that of the rack frame 103 and the length of the 384 tube 102 partitioned in a grid pattern inside thereof.
A tube support pin 101 is suspended vertically upward from the crossing point of the grid. The grid-like partition wall 109 and the tube support pin 101 constitute an accommodation space 108 that accommodates the 384 tube 102.

In order to show the relationship between the 384 tube storage rack 100 and the 384 tube 102 in more detail, FIG. 7 shows a perspective view of a portion denoted by reference numeral VII in FIG.
Further, FIG. 8 shows a top view of FIG. 7 viewed from above. Furthermore, FIG. 9 shows a cross-sectional view when cut at the position indicated by the line IX-IX in FIG.

As is apparent from FIGS. 7 to 9, the 384 tube 102 has a square tube shape and is narrowed toward the bottom portion 102a, and the corner portion 102e and the open end portion 102f of the outer surface are chamfered. Has been.
A step portion 102g having a crank-shaped cross section is formed at a position where it abuts on the upper surface of the grid-like partition wall 109, and this shape prevents the 384 tube 102 from slipping through the grid-like partition wall 109 and dropping. ing.
The outer bottom 102a of the 384 tube 102 is flat, but the inner bottom 102b has a quadrangular pyramid shape with an inclination toward the center of the bottom.
This shape makes it possible to minimize the residue when the solution in the 384 tube is extracted with a pipette or the like.

The tube support pin 101 has a circular cross section and is suspended from the intersection of a grid-like partition wall 109.
The lower wall 102d of the 384 tube 102 is held by the grid-like partition wall 109, and the upper wall 102c is supported by the tube support pin 101. Therefore, the storage for the 384 tube is performed even though the height of the grid-like partition wall 109 is low. The 384 tube 102 inserted into the rack 100 is prevented from wobbling or falling over.

3 is a side view when viewed from the III direction of FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line IV-IV of FIG.
Moreover, the V section enlarged view of FIG. 3 is FIG. 5, and the VI section enlarged view of FIG. 4 is FIG.
Since the open end portion 102f of the 384 tube 102 is chamfered as shown in FIG. 7, the drawing is made between the open end portions 102f of the plurality of 384 tubes 102 accommodated adjacent to the 384 tube storage rack 100. As shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, a V-shaped space 102h is formed.
By inserting the blade 126 of the cutter 120 into the V-shaped space 102h, the 384 tubes can be separated one by one.

Next, the cutter 120 which is one of the essential components of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
The cutter 120 itself may be any cutter as long as it does not depart from the technical idea of the present invention, but two examples are shown as preferable examples.
For convenience, they are referred to as Example 1 and Example 2.

  FIG. 10 is a top view showing a main part when the 384 tubes 102 accommodated in the storage rack 100 for 384 tubes are separated one by one by the cutter 120, and FIG. 11 is a XI-XI in FIG. FIG. 12 is a side view when FIG. 10 is viewed from the XII direction, FIG. 13 is an enlarged view of a portion XIII in FIG. 11, and FIG. It is a side view when seeing from the XIV direction.

In the cutter 120 shown in FIG. 10, a plurality of blades 126 are suspended from the outer periphery of a cylindrical member 124 having a rotation shaft 122 with a width of one section of the 384 tube storage rack 100.
In this figure, 23 blades 126 are suspended so that 24 rows of sections can be separated at a time.
Then, as shown in an enlarged view in FIG. 13, the blade 126 of the cutter 120 is stuck in the V-shaped space 102 h formed by the chamfered portion formed in the open end portion 102 f of the adjacent 384 tube 102. Yes.
And the 384 tube 102 connected with the sealing material 106 can be cut | divided for every one by rotating the cutter 120 along the V-shaped space 102h comprised in matrix form.

  FIG. 15 is a top view showing a main part when the 384 tubes 102 accommodated in the storage rack 100 for 384 tubes are separated one by one by the cutter 140, and FIG. 16 is an XVI-XVI in FIG. FIG. 17 is a side view when FIG. 15 is viewed from the XVII direction, FIG. 18 is an enlarged view of a portion XVIII in FIG. 16, and FIG. It is a side view when seeing from the XIX direction.

In the cutter 140 shown in FIG. 15, a plurality of blades 146 are suspended from the outer periphery of a columnar member 144 having a rotation shaft 142 with a width of one section of the 384 tube storage rack 100, and the columnar member 144. The both ends of each have a cut depth adjusting convex portion 148.
When the cutter 140 is rotated and moved to cut each 384 tube one by one, the cut depth adjusting convex portion 148 abuts on the rack frame 103 which is the outer frame of the 384 tube storage rack 100, and The cutting depth of the blade 146 is regulated.
Therefore, it is not necessary to adjust the cutting depth on the side of the cutting machine equipped with the cutter 140 (not shown).

  Moreover, a handle 150 is attached to the rotating shaft 142 of the cutter 140 as shown in FIG. 20, and the cutter 140 is rotated and moved manually along the V-shaped space 102h configured in a matrix, so that adjacent 384 tubes are provided. 102 can be cut into pieces.

  The method of sealing and separating a plurality of tubes encapsulating a drug discovery sample according to the present invention is a method in which an opening end portion of a 384 tube is sealed and then cut into pieces one by one. In addition to the drug discovery field, industrial applicability is extremely high.

The perspective view of the storage rack in this invention. The top view of the storage rack shown in FIG. 1 (only four tubes are depicted). The side view seen from the III direction of the storage rack shown in FIG. Sectional drawing when cut | disconnecting by the IV-IV line of FIG. The enlarged side view in the V section of FIG. The expanded sectional view in the VI section of FIG. The perspective view which shows the support state of the 384 tube by the tube support pin in the VII part of FIG. The top view of the 384 tube and storage rack in this invention shown in FIG. Sectional drawing in the IX-IX line of FIG. The top view of Example 1 of this invention. Sectional drawing in the XI-XI line of FIG. The side view when it sees from the XII direction of FIG. The expanded sectional view in the XIII part of FIG. The side view when it sees from the XIV direction of FIG. The top view of Example 2 of this invention. Sectional drawing in the XVI-XVI line of FIG. The side view when it sees from the XVII direction of FIG. The expanded sectional view in the XVIII part of FIG. The side view when it sees from the XIX direction of FIG. The perspective view when using the cutter of Example 2 manually. The perspective view of the conventional 384 tube and rack. FIG. 6 is a vertical cross-sectional view of another conventional 384 tube and rack.

100, 210, 220 ... Storage rack 101 ... Tube support pins 102, 212, 222 ... 384 tube 102a ... Outer base 102b (of 384 tube) ... Inner base 102c (of 384 tube) ... Upper wall 102d (of 384 tube) ... Lower wall 102e (of 384 tube) ... Corner portion 102f (of 384 tube) ... Open end portion 102g (of 384 tube) ... (384) Step 102h of tube (V-shaped space 103, 213, 223, ... formed by two adjacent 384 tubes) Rack frame 106, 216, 226 ... Sealing material 108, 218, 228 ··· Accommodating spaces 109, 219, 229 · · · Grid-like partition walls 120 and 140 ··· Cutter 12 , 142 ... rotary shaft 124, 142 ... cylindrical member 126, 146 ... (cutter) blade 148 ... cutting depth adjustment protrusion 150 ... (cutter) handle

Claims (4)

  A tube with a square cross-sectional shape that narrows toward the bottom and is chamfered at the open end and encloses a drug discovery sample. One tube is inserted into each of the compartments formed by the grid-like partition walls of the storage rack. In such a state, the sheet material is covered so as to cover the location where the tube is present and thermally welded for each section, and the blade of the cutter is formed in a V-shaped space formed by a chamfered portion applied to an adjacent open end portion of the tube. A method of sealing and separating a plurality of tubes enclosing a drug discovery sample, wherein the tubes are separated from each other by inserting a tube.   The said cutter equips the outer periphery of a cylindrical member with the some blade hung by the width | variety of the said one division, The several tubes which enclosed the drug discovery sample described in Claim 1 were sealed And then detach it.   The said cutter has the convex part for cutting depth adjustment in the both ends of the said cylindrical member, The multiple tubes which enclosed the drug discovery sample described in Claim 2 were sealed, How to detach.   The method for sealing and separating a plurality of tubes enclosing a drug discovery sample according to claim 1, wherein the sheet material is an aluminum foil.

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