Production-line-type high-throughput screening system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10705104-B2
Application number	US-201715708706-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 19, 2017
Priority date	Jun 30, 2017
Publication date	Jul 7, 2020
Grant date	Jul 7, 2020

Abstract

The present invention provides a production-line-type high-throughput screening system, which relates to the field of biotechnology and testing equipment. The system comprises of four manipulators, three parallel conveyor belts with fixed slots, 2-DOF slipway and fixed fixtures, 96-channel pipetting system, coloring device, oscillating mixing device, microplate reader, well plates loading platform and well plates recycling platform. Manual operation takes five minutes to detect one 96-well plate, while this system can handle 20 96-well plates per minute. It expands the number of screening targets, making the screening process more clearly and concisely and liberating manual labor. The system makes effective contributions to the development of microbial breeding technology.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A production-line-type high-throughput screening system, comprising:
one or more manipulators each comprising a clamping device configured to carry a 96-well plate,
conveyor belts with one or more fixed slots located thereon, wherein each slot accommodates a 96-well plate or a pipette head container,
a 2-DOF slipway,
fixed fixtures installed on both sides of every conveyor belt and configured to clamp the 96-well plate in the fixed slots, wherein the fixed fixtures are pneumatically actuated when the conveyor belts are moved to a position in which the fixed slots are aligned,
a multi-channel pipette configured to be mounted on the 2-DOF slipway and to fill a 96-well plate,
a coloring device, wherein the coloring device is a 96-channel pipette system comprising developer and configured to add developer to a 96-well plate,
an oscillating mixing device, and
a microplate reader.

2. The screening system of claim 1 , wherein said screening system further comprises:
a 96-well plate loading platform,
a pipette head container recycling platform, and
a first plate recycling platform that accommodates a first 96-well plate, and
a second plate recycling platform that accommodates a second 96-well plate;
wherein said conveyor belts with one or more fixed slots comprise three parallel belts, wherein the three parallel belts comprise:
a first conveyor belt for conveying the pipette head container,
a second conveyor belt for conveying the first 96-well plate, and
a third conveyor belt for conveying the the second 96-well plate,
wherein the one or more manipulators are four manipulators,
wherein the first 96-well plate and the second 96-well plate each comprise 96 uniform wells, and wherein each of the uniform wells of the first 96-well plate hold more liquid than each of the uniform wells of the second 96-well plate,
wherein the 2-DOF slipway stretches across the three parallel belts, and
wherein the multi-channel pipette is configured to be mounted on the 2-DOF slipway, and
wherein the coloring device, the oscillating mixing device, and the microplate reader are arranged sequentially along a moving direction of a sample on the third conveyor belt, with the sample reaching the coloring device first, followed by the oscillating mixing device, and then the microplate reader.

3. The screening system of claim 2 , wherein:
the four manipulators comprise a first manipulator, a second manipulator, a third manipulator, and a fourth manipulator;
the first manipulator is configured to carry the first 96-well plate and the pipette head container from the 96-well plate loading platform to the corresponding conveyor belt;
the second manipulator is configured to carry the 96-well plate from the microplate reader to the 96-well recycling platform;
the third manipulator is configured to carry the 96-well plate and the pipette head container to the 96-well recycling platform and the pipette head container recycling platform; and
the fourth manipulator is configured to carry the 96-well plate from the conveyor belt to the oscillating mixing device.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the conveyor belts with the fixed slots comprise uniformly-spaced grooves for placing a 96-well plate and the pipette head container.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the coloring device is a 96-channel pipette system, which is set on one side of the third conveyor belt, and is configured to add developer to the 96-shallow-well plate which is configured to contain loaded samples.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a clamping device; wherein a clamping device is equipped at an end of the manipulator, for holding the 96-well plate or pipette head container; wherein a first connecting rod of the clamping device is configured to be driven directly by a motor, and its ends are configured to be connected with a second connecting rod and a fourth connecting rod respectively by a pin, and it is rotatable along its connecting part; wherein the second connecting rod is configured to be connected with a third connecting rod by a pin and is rotatable along its connecting part; wherein a fourth connecting rod is configured to be connected with a fifth connecting rod by a pin, and is rotatable along its connecting part; wherein the third connecting rod and the fifth connecting rod are respectively connected fixedly with a first chuck and a second chunk.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising fixed fixtures installed on both sides of every conveyor belt under the 2-DOF slipway.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the manipulator is equipped with a visual sensor.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein said system is equipped with sensors at every working position.

10. The system of claim 6 , wherein the 2-DOF slipway is equipped with a collision sensor, and the clamping device at the end of manipulator is equipped with a pressure sensor.

Assignees

• Univ Jiangnan

Inventors

• Zhou Jingwen
• Chen Jian
• Fang Jun
• Ning Meng
• Du Guocheng
• Zeng Weizhu
• Zhang Qiuju
• Cao Xiaomei

Classifications

• G01N35/0099 Primary

  comprising robots or similar manipulators (robots per se B25J) · CPC title

• G01N2035/0424

  Two or more linear conveyors · CPC title

• G01N2035/00514

  Stationary mixing elements · CPC title

• G01N35/028

  having reaction cells in the form of microtitration plates · CPC title

• G01N2035/00158

  Elements containing microarrays, i.e. "biochip" · CPC title