Automated analyzer for clinical laboratory

Abstract

A laboratory automation system that is capable of carrying out clinical chemistry assays, immunoassays, amplification of nucleic acid assays, and any combination of the foregoing, said laboratory automation system employing at least one of micro-well plates and deep multi-well plates as reaction vessels. The use of micro-well plates as reaction vessels enables the laboratory automation system to assume a variety of arrangements, i.e., the laboratory automation system can comprise a variety of functional modules that can be arranged in various ways. In order to effectively carry out immunoassays by means of micro-well plates, a technique known as inverse magnetic particle processing can be used to transfer the product(s) of immunoassays from one micro-well of a micro-well plate to another.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 kitting, using an aspirating/dispensing device, a first multi-well plate for an immunoassay analysis by adding a first sample to one or more wells of the first multi-well plate and adding a first reagent to the one or more of the wells of the first multi-well plate;   processing the first multi-well plate in an immunoassay module by mixing, incubating, and washing contents of the one or more wells of the first multi-well plate;   kitting, using the aspirating/dispensing device, a second multi-well plate for a clinical chemistry assay analysis while the first multi-well plate is being processed by the immunoassay module, the kitting including adding a second sample to one or more wells of the second multi-well plate and adding a second reagent to the one or more of the wells of the second multi-well plate; and   processing the second multi-well plate in a clinical chemistry assay module by mixing, incubating, and reading contents of the one or more wells of the second multi-well plate.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further including kitting, using the aspirating/dispensing device, a third multi-well plate for a nucleic acid test by adding a third sample to one or more wells of the third multi-well plate. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  further including processing the third multi-well plate in an extraction module by extracting and amplifying nucleic acid of the third sample in the one or more wells of the third multi-well plate. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the immunoassay module includes a first magnetic particle processor and the extraction module includes a second magnetic particle processor. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the immunoassay module is located at a first location in a laboratory automation system and the clinical chemistry assay module is located at a second location in the laboratory automation system, the second location different from the first location. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein processing the first multi-well plate includes moving particles between at least two of the wells of the first multi-well plate using inverse magnetic particle processing. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  further including, after the first multi-well plate is processed, reading the contents of the one or more wells of the first multi-well plate in a luminescence reader. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein kitting the first multi-well plate includes aspirating the first reagent from a first reagent container in a reagent storage area and adding the first reagent to the first multi-well plate, and wherein kitting the second multi-well plate includes aspirating the second reagent from a second reagent container in the reagent storage area and adding the second reagent to the second multi-well plate. 
     
     
         9 . A method to perform a clinical chemistry assay, the method including:
 aspirating, with an aspirating/dispensing device, a first quantity of a first reagent;   dispensing, with the aspirating/dispensing device, the first quantity of the first reagent into a first subset of wells of a multi-well plate, the first subset of wells containing specimens;   moving the multi-well plate into a reader and performing a first reading of the multi-well plate;   aspirating, with the aspirating/dispensing, a second quantity of the first reagent during the first reading;   moving the multi-well plate out of the reader;   dispensing, with the aspirating/dispensing device, the second quantity of the first reagent into a second subset of wells of the multi-well plate, the second subset of wells containing specimens; and   moving the multi-well plate into the reader and performing a second reading of the multi-well plate.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , furthering including moving, with the aspirating/dispensing device, the multi-well plate from a multi-well plate storage area to a kitting area prior to dispensing the first quantity of the first reagent. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9  further including, after moving the multi-well plate out of the reader after the first reading and prior to dispensing the second quantity of the first reagent, rotating the plate 90°. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 9 , further including:
 aspirating, with the aspirating/dispensing device, a third quantity of a second reagent during the second reading;   moving the multi-well plate out of the reader;   dispensing, with the aspirating/dispensing device, the third quantity of the second reagent into the first subset of wells or the second subset of wells; and   moving the multi-well plate into the reader and performing a third reading of the multi-well plate.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the first quantity is the same as the second quantity. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the aspirating/dispensing device is a four-channel XYZ pipette. 
     
     
         15 . A method to perform a clinical chemistry assay, the method including:
 aspirating, with an aspirating/dispensing device, a first quantity of a first reagent;   dispensing, with the aspirating/dispensing device, the first quantity of the first reagent into a plurality of wells of a multi-well plate, the plurality of wells having specimens;   moving the multi-well plate into a reader and performing a first reading of the multi-well plate;   aspirating, with the aspirating/dispensing, a second quantity of the second reagent different than the first reagent during the first reading;   moving the multi-well plate out of the reader after the first reading;   dispensing, with the aspirating/dispensing device, the second quantity of the second reagent into the plurality of wells of the multi-well plate; and   moving the multi-well plate into the reader and performing a second reading the multi-well plate.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further including, after moving the multi-well plate out of the reader after the first reading and prior to dispensing the second quantity of the second reagent, rotating the plate 90°.