JPH06265449A - Liquid dispenser - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide such a liquid dispenser as varying a partial liquid dispensing form in a functional manner by installing a mechanism that sets a few pipette tips alone and vice versa, in this device for setting all pipette tips and vice versa simultaneously. CONSTITUTION:This liquid dispenser is provided with a second detachable part 2 which attaches or detaches a few pipette tips addition to another detachable part 1 setting all the pipette tips and vice versa at the same time, and these few pipette tips are properly attached or detached at need, through which a specific dispensing form is materialized in a partial pipette tip part.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pipetting apparatus for continuously pipetting a plurality of samples at a time by using a plurality of pipette tips, which are called detachable type liquid holding parts, at the same time. Of the tips, only a few pipette tips are attached / detached, especially separately from the other many parts, and some of them are used in a dispensing operation in a container having a plurality of dispensed containers such as a titer plate container. The present invention relates to a functional dispensing device that easily realizes different dispensing forms such as not performing a liquid dispensing operation on a pipette tip.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, in the field of biochemistry centering on molecular biology, it is necessary to manipulate and analyze a large number of minute samples in a short time in the analysis and clinical analysis of immune reactions. For this purpose, an integral type dispensing container called a titer plate, which has cell containers called 4 × n wells in series, is frequently used at present. In the dispensing using this dispensing container, since it is designed to dispense a large number of small amount samples at a time into a container called that well, the sample in these wells can be quickly and It can dispense accurately without avoiding unnecessary contamination with the sample solution. For this reason, in recent years, in biochemical liquid dispensing apparatuses, a method has been adopted in which a plurality of disposable liquid holding containers called pipette tips are continuously attached and detached to dispense a large number of different solutions at once. This method is a method of discarding the pipette tip used for one-time sample dispensing each time it is used. Since there is no mutual contamination between samples, it is frequently used for dispensing titer plate containers with many wells. It is used.

[0003] In these dispensing devices for simultaneously loading and unloading a plurality of pipette tips at the same time to dispense a liquid, the liquid sample in a plurality of consecutive wells is mainly dispensed simultaneously and similarly. As a result, it is frequently used in the field of biochemistry or in the field of clinical analysis of screening for hepatitis and the like, since multiple samples can be dispensed at one time. By the way 8
The 96-well titer plate consisting of 12 rows and 12 columns is suitable for a wide range of analysis, especially in terms of size and processing capacity, and is widely used for analysis, and various dispensing and measuring instruments for the 96-well plate are also sold. Therefore, it is highly used as a container for dispensing. In the dispensing of these titer plates, it is necessary to dispense and analyze a large number of samples, and in order to improve the accuracy of the analysis, a specific small number of blank wells are provided in the wells of the titer plate as a blank and Often used as the standard for analytical processing of samples in most other wells. That is, it is because the influence of the reagents or the like on the measurement can be determined without dispensing the sample or a part of the reagents only to the blank well, and the analytical value can be used as a reference.

By the way, in these blank wells, in order to avoid unnecessary and uneconomical dispensing of reagents or samples, a part of a series of dispensing operations needs to be operated in a dispensing form different from other wells. Come on.

However, in the conventional dispensing operation in the conventional dispensing apparatus for dispensing a large number of samples, since a plurality of continuous dispensing sections all move at the same time, many operations are performed in a short time in these dispensing operations. Although the sample solution can be dispensed, it was not possible to perform an operation that enables a unique dispensing form such as not performing special dispensing only on a small number of wells that exist continuously.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION From the above viewpoints, the present invention is directed to a dispensing apparatus for simultaneously depositing / demounting a plurality of pipette tips to dispense a liquid, while remaining the dispensing operation for a small number of wells. It was made in order to provide a high-performance dispensing device characterized by having a function of changing from a large number of wells.

[0007]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The features of the dispensing device according to the present invention, which has been made to realize such an object, are that all pipette tip attachment / detachment portions corresponding to all consecutive pipette tips and Is to install a small pipette tip attachment / detachment portion or attachment / detachment portion that can be applied only to a small number of a few pipette tips.

That is, in addition to the continuous plurality of pipette tip mounting / demounting functions, some small number of pipette tip mounting / demounting functions or mounting / removing functions for all pipette tips are separately provided. It has a small number of pipette chip attachment / detachment parts, and separately realizes the function of attaching / detaching consecutive pipette tips at the same time and the function of attaching / detaching only a part of the consecutive pipette tips and further attaching / detaching.

By having these parts, it is possible to quickly change the detached state of a part of the pipette tips arbitrarily and by a simple operation, without changing all other detached states with respect to the continuous pipette tips that have been attached and detached. There is a feature of this dispensing device.

Further, by keeping the interval between the consecutive pipette tips constant, making the number of the consecutive pipette tips a multiple of 4 and the number of the pipette tips to be individually attached / detached to be 8 × 12. In a titer plate, which is usually used in a variety of fields in a matrix of, for example, one well is used as a control well or blank well, and the other 95 wells are used as control wells. It is intended to provide a dispensing device having a high function that can realize various dispensing modes by a simple operation.

The pipette tip according to the present invention is not particularly limited in its shape and material as long as the liquid is held therein by the suction operation and at the same time the liquid is discharged from the pipette tip by the discharging operation. No, but especially polypropylene, polycarbonate, polystyrene,
A conical pipette tip made of resin such as vinyl chloride is preferable.

Further, the mounting / dismounting of the pipette tip according to the present invention means a structure / shape particularly if it shows a function of automatically mounting the pipette tip at the target tip mounting portion by mechanical operation and detaching it at the detaching portion. -Although not limited to the method, a pipette tip attachment / detachment method by a mechanical pressing action is preferable. At this time, there is no problem even if the part where the pipette tip is attached at the same time and the part where it is detached are separate.

The small number of pipette tips referred to here is not limited to any number as long as it is less than half of the number of pipette tips to be simultaneously attached and detached, but one is particularly preferable.

The term "a plurality of pipette tips to be mounted / removed at the same time" as used herein means that the pipette tips are arranged at equal intervals and three or more pipette tips are mounted / removed at the same operation at the same time. It is not limited in any way.

[0015]

According to the present invention, in addition to the fact that a pipetting operation using a pipette tip at a plurality of positions at the same time, it is possible to perform a pipetting operation in which only one position is different, that is, a desired pipetting operation is not performed. Then, before the next operation, it is possible to say that all pipetting operations can be performed again under the same conditions and operations by reattaching the pipette tips that have been detached by detaching the pipette tips individually. There is an effect that the above two dispensing modes can be arbitrarily selected.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited to this embodiment.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a dispensing apparatus showing one mode of this embodiment. In this embodiment, the dispensing solution container is 8
It is a titer plate 7 with a total of 96 cells in rows and 12 columns, and the apparatus is used for the purpose of dispensing a reagent to the plate.
Normally, 12 pipette tips are attached and detached at the same time to suck and discharge the liquid, but for simplicity of illustration, 8 pipette tips and 8 wells for the titer plate 7 are shown. Will be described with 12 pipette tips and 12 wells.

The operation of this dispensing apparatus will be briefly described. The pipette chip 3 is mounted on the nozzle unit 6 by the mechanical pressing action of the nozzle holding unit 5 from the pipette chip placement unit in which 12 pipette chips are arranged at equal intervals. Then, the nozzle portion moves to the second detaching portion for attaching / detaching a small number of pipette tips 1 in FIG. 1, and here, in the case of FIG. 1, one pipette tip is detached. In FIG. 1, the pipette chips of the small number of pipette chip mounting portions 2 are schematically shown that the detached pipette chips at that time are arranged on the small number of pipette chip mounting portions 2 by a dropping action. Is.

Next, with the 11 pipette tips still attached, a certain amount of reagent is sucked from a reagent section (not shown).
Next, the reagent 1 which has been sucked into the column A of the titer plate 7 is discharged in a fixed amount. Next, with the 11 pipette tips already mounted still mounted, the second mounting section 2 is again carried out. At this time, the pipette tip detached in the previous step is conveyed from the detachment section 1 to the spatially separate second mounting section 2 by utilizing the dropping force as shown in the figure. The pipette tip detached in the previous process is again mounted in the second mounting portion 2 by utilizing the mechanical pressing action. In addition, the nozzle part 6 with twelve pipette tips attached goes to the reagent part again and the reagent 1
Aspirate a set amount. In this case, a fixed amount of reagent is sucked into all 12 pipette tips. Next, the nozzle portion 6 moves to the row B of the titer plate 7 and discharges the reagent 1 from 12 pipette tips in the row B. The same dispensing operation is repeated from row B to row H.

After performing these reagent dispensing operations, the nozzle portion 6 moves to a pipette tip detaching portion (not shown), and all the pipette tips are detached by the mechanical pressing force installed in the nozzle holding portion 5. By the action of the pipette tip attaching / detaching mechanism 4, all the pipette tips are detached at the same time.

FIG. 2 shows in what form the sample was dispensed in the 8 × 12 matrix titer plate using the dispensing apparatus of Example 1 according to the present invention. White circles are wells in which no reagent was dispensed and black circles were wells in which reagent was dispensed. A specific well,
In this case, the same amount of reagent was dispensed to the remaining 95 wells except that reagent 1 was not dispensed only to well 8 of A-1. 96 hours spent on dispensing
This was almost the same as the case where 12 rows of pipette tips were used for each titer plate well and were evenly distributed to all the wells. Thereby, the subsequent measurement of each well of the titer plate can be performed by using the A-1 well containing no reagent as a blank well.

[0022]

[Comparative Example] Except that the dispensing device (trade name, SGR400: manufactured by Sanko Junyaku Co., Ltd.) using 12 rows of pipette tips, which is the same as the embodiment, is used except that the second mounting portion and the second detaching portion are not provided. Dispensing operation was performed under the same conditions as in Example 1. It was not possible to automatically realize a dispensing mode in which a specific well was not dispensed. In addition, one pipette tip in the first dispensing process was detached manually for dispensing. In the first row, the desired dispensing form was achieved,
Reattachment of the detached pipette tip in the next step could not be performed manually, and the second and subsequent rows in Example 1 (B
The dispensing form of (column H) could not be realized.

[0023]

[Comparative Example] A pipetting device (trade name, NSS-1000: manufactured by Nichiryo Co., Ltd.) consisting of only a mounting / demounting unit for one pipette tip was used to perform the pipetting operation. 1
In the method of loading and unloading the pipette tip with the nozzle portion of the book, the intended dispensing form could be realized, but the required time was about eight times that of Example 1.

[0024]

[Effect] As is clear from the description of the above embodiment, according to the present invention, liquid dispensing of a large number of samples can be realized quickly, and at the same time, a large number of objects to be dispensed are different from the others. With respect to the dispensing form, there is an effect that a dispensing operation for a large number of objects can be realized similarly quickly, automatically and simply. As a result, the functionality of the dispensing operation is dramatically improved, and it becomes possible to perform the dispensing and the measurement with high reliability and reproducibility in the calculation of the measuring operation after the dispensing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a dispensing device showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a liquid composition of a titer plate in a dispensing process of Example 1.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 A small number of pipette tip detaching sections 2 A few pipette tip mounting sections 3 Pipette tip placement section 4 All pipette tip detaching mechanisms 5 Nozzle holding section 6 Nozzle section 7 Titer plate 8 Blank well

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A dispensing device for simultaneously dispensing and removing a plurality of pipette tips to dispense a liquid, characterized in that only a small number of the plurality of pipette tips to be attached are independently attached and detached. Dispensing device. 2. In a dispensing device for simultaneously dispensing and removing a plurality of pipette tips to dispense a liquid, a mechanism for simultaneously loading and unloading all the plurality of pipette tips to be attached and the pipette tips to be simultaneously detached and attached. A liquid dispensing device characterized by having a mechanism for independently attaching and removing a small number of pipette tips. 3. A pipetting device for loading and unloading a plurality of pipette chips at the same time to dispense a liquid, all pipette chip loading / unloading parts corresponding to all the mounted pipette chips, and the pipette chips separate therefrom. A liquid dispensing apparatus characterized in that a minority pipette chip attachment / detachment part or attachment / detachment part for only a small number of minority pipette tips is installed. 4. The liquid dispenser according to claim 1, wherein the number of pipette chips to be simultaneously mounted is a multiple of 4 in a dispensing device for simultaneously dispensing and removing a plurality of pipette chips to dispense a liquid. Dispensing device. 5. The liquid dispenser according to claim 1, wherein the number of pipette chips to be individually mounted / dismounted is 1 in a dispensing apparatus for simultaneously dispensing / dismounting a plurality of pipette chips to dispense a liquid. Dispensing device. 6. The liquid dispensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pipetting apparatus has two or more pipette loading / unloading parts in a dispensing apparatus for simultaneously loading / unloading a plurality of pipette tips to dispense a liquid at the same time. 7. A pipetting device for simultaneously mounting and removing a plurality of pipette tips to dispense a liquid at the same time, wherein one of the pipette loading and unloading parts is installed in a pipette tip holding part for holding a pipette tip and the other is The liquid dispensing device according to claim 3, wherein the liquid dispensing device is installed in a portion spatially isolated from the holding portion. 8. In a dispensing apparatus for simultaneously mounting and demounting a plurality of pipette tips to dispense a liquid at the same time, a portion for detaching a small number of pipette tips and a portion for mounting the pipette tip are different in position. The liquid dispensing device according to claim 1. 9. A dispensing device for simultaneously dispensing and detaching a plurality of pipette tips to dispense a liquid at the same time, and mounting a small number of detached pipette tips vertically and horizontally from a detachment position. The liquid dispensing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the part is provided with a mechanism for moving by utilizing a dropping force.