Nucleic acid analyzer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10815524-B2
Application number	US-201515548574-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 23, 2015
Priority date	Feb 23, 2015
Publication date	Oct 27, 2020
Grant date	Oct 27, 2020

Abstract

The purpose of the invention is to provide a nucleic acid analyzer that sets and executes temperature regulation, said temperature regulation matching the characteristics of analyzing items and the configuration of the analyzer, by a simple operation while preventing deterioration in analytical performance caused by partial overheating of a liquid reaction mixture to thereby improve temperature change speed and shorten analysis time. To achieve the above purpose, provided is a method wherein, in the case of performing overshooting: as a first processing, the temperature is continuously elevated until reaching a target overshoot temperature; as a second processing, after reaching the aforesaid temperature, the overshoot target temperature is maintained for a preset period of time; and, as a third processing, the temperature is continuously lowered until reaching a target temperature of the liquid reaction mixture. By executing the first to third processings, regulation is conducted so that temperature measurement values are in a trapezoidal form.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A nucleic acid analyzer comprising:
a carousel drivable around a rotary axis;
a plurality of holders disposed along an outer circumference of the carousel, each of the holders configured to hold a reaction vessel containing a sample obtained by mixing a reagent and a nucleic acid, each of the holders including an irradiation window and a detection window;
a Peltier device aligned radially with each of the holders and the carousel, each Peltier device sandwiched radially between a corresponding one of the holders and the carousel to control a temperature of said corresponding one of the holders;
a temperature sensor mounted to each of the holders;
a photometer disposed at an outer circumference of the carousel to supply excitation light to the irradiation window of each holder and to receive fluorescent light from the detection window;
each Peltier device, together with one of the holders and the temperature sensor mounted to said one of the holders, forming a temperature control unit, which controls a temperature of the sample;
an optical noise reducing shielding plate covering the carousel and the holders; and
a temperature controller, which controls the temperature control unit,
wherein during analysis of said sample, at sensed temperatures above a threshold value, the analyzer operates so that a curve of temperature values for duration time continuously ramps up the temperature values to a first target overshoot temperature, retains the first target overshoot temperature for a predetermined duration after reaching the first target overshoot temperature, then continuously ramps down the temperature values from the first target overshoot temperature to a reaction mixture target temperature, and thereafter maintains the reaction mixture target temperature, and so that, at sensed temperatures that are not above the threshold value, a curve of temperature values for duration time continuously ramps up the temperature values to a second target overshoot temperature lower than the first target overshoot temperature, and then continuously ramps down the temperature values from the second target overshoot temperature to the reaction mixture target temperature without retaining the second target overshoot temperature, and thereafter maintains the reaction mixture target temperature.

2. The nucleic acid analyzer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the temperature controller has an input device through which a limit temperature range of overshooting or an upper limit value for a preset temperature in a PCR temperature cycle is input in advance.

3. The nucleic acid analyzer according to claim 1 ,
wherein the temperature controller applies overshoot setting, which is configured to include two parameters of an overshoot temperature range and an overshoot duration time, to a preset temperature for each step in one cycle of a PCR temperature.

4. The nucleic acid analyzer according to claim 3 , further comprising an input device through which a plurality of kinds of trapezoidal overshoot setting and threshold values for switching a parameter of trapezoidal overshooting are input to the temperature controller.

5. The nucleic acid analyzer according to claim 3 ,
wherein the temperature control unit is one of a plurality of temperature control units, each of which independently controls a temperature.

Assignees

• Hitachi High Tech Corp

Inventors

• NAMMOKU Manami
• Tamura Terumi
• Maeda Kohshi
• Morishima Daisuke
• Sakurai Toshinari
• Sato Wataru

Classifications

• B01L2300/0663

  Whole sensors · CPC title

• B01L2200/147

  Employing temperature sensors · CPC title

• C12Q1/686 Primary

  Polymerase chain reaction [PCR] · CPC title

• B01L2300/1822

  using Peltier elements · CPC title

• B01L7/52 Primary

  with provision for submitting samples to a predetermined sequence of different temperatures, e.g. for treating nucleic acid samples · CPC title