Patent Grant
11975328
Various assay protocols for clinical and molecular processes are implemented in fluidic devices having channels that hold and direct fluid for mixing, processing, reaction, detection, etc. One example of such protocol is DNA sequencing, in which a fluid sample of library molecules are loaded into a fluidic device that is loaded into a processing instrument, e.g., a sequencer, where the library molecules are converted into clusters via an amplification technique, such as polymerase chain reaction, and then detected using electrochemical detection.
There is a general need for efficiently loading the fluid sample of library molecules into the fluidic device outside the processing instrument. However, due to the highly viscous nature of the fluid sample, in some instances it is difficult to aspirate and dispense the fluid sample into the fluid device outside the processing instrument, especially with manual pipette operations. In some instances, when loading a fluidic device via a manual pipette, air bubbles formed in the fluid sample can clog the channels of the fluidic devices, thereby preventing the fluid sample from passing through the channels of the fluidic devices via capillary force. Consequently, in those instances expensive equipment, such as a vacuum, is employed to try to remove bubbles from fluid being dispensed into fluidic devices. Thus, there is a need for improved apparatuses and methods that are capable of permitting liquid of a fluid sample into a fluidic device and preventing bubbles of the fluid sample from entering the fluidic device.
The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects described herein. This summary is not an extensive overview of the claimed subject matter. It is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of the claimed subject matter nor delineate the scope thereof. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.
The present disclosure includes various examples of an assembly for loading a fluid sample into a fluid cartridge. In accordance with one example, the assembly comprises a docking console including a cartridge support surface having a first end and a second end and a manifold having one or more wells defined therein. The docking console comprises a manifold retention bracket to releasably hold the manifold against a fluid cartridge supported on the cartridge support surface at an interface position such that the one or more wells are in fluid communication with the fluid cartridge and a biased seal bar to press the fluid cartridge against the manifold held by the manifold retention bracket.
In another example, the assembly comprises a docking console including a cartridge support surface having a first end and a second end and a manifold having one or more wells defined therein. Each one of the wells comprises a retainer chamber and an outlet aperture disposed below and in communication with the retainer chamber and a hydrophilic porous frit disposed within at least one of the wells to permit liquid to flow through the outlet aperture but prevent gas from passing through the outlet aperture.
In another example, a method for dispensing fluid into a fluid cartridge comprises placing the fluid cartridge on a cartridge support surface of a docking console such that a positioning device of the docking console engages the fluid cartridge and biases the fluid cartridge or the component thereof into an interface position; placing a manifold having one or more wells defined therein on a manifold retention bracket of the docking console; moving the manifold retention bracket from a release position to a locking position to hold the manifold against the fluid cartridge such that the one or more wells are in fluid communication with the fluid cartridge; dispensing fluid into the one or more wells of the manifold such that the fluid is dispersed into the fluid cartridge; moving the manifold retention bracket from the locking position to the release position; and removing the manifold and the fluid cartridge from the docking console.
Other features and characteristics of the subject matter of this disclosure, as well as the methods of operation, functions of related elements of structure and the combination of parts, and economies of manufacture, will become more apparent upon consideration of the following description and the appended claims with reference to the accompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this specification, wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding parts in the various figures.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form part of the specification, illustrate various examples of the subject matter of this disclosure. In the drawings, like reference numbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements.
While aspects of the subject matter of the present disclosure may be embodied in a variety of forms, the following description and accompanying drawings are merely intended to disclose some of these forms as specific examples of the subject matter. Accordingly, the subject matter of this disclosure is not intended to be limited to the forms or examples so described and illustrated.
Unless defined otherwise, all terms of art, notations and other technical terms or terminology used herein have the same meaning as is commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. All patents, applications, published applications and other publications referred to herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety. If a definition set forth in this section is contrary to or otherwise inconsistent with a definition set forth in the patents, applications, published applications, and other publications that are herein incorporated by reference, the definition set forth in this section prevails over the definition that is incorporated herein by reference.
Unless otherwise indicated or the context suggests otherwise, as used herein, “a” or “an” means “at least one” or “one or more.”
This description may use relative spatial and/or orientation terms in describing the position and/or orientation of a component, apparatus, location, feature, or a portion thereof. Unless specifically stated, or otherwise dictated by the context of the description, such terms, including, without limitation, top, bottom, above, below, under, on top of, upper, lower, left of, right of, in front of, behind, next to, adjacent, between, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, longitudinal, transverse, radial, axial, etc., are used for convenience in referring to such component, apparatus, location, feature, or a portion thereof in the drawings and are not intended to be limiting.
Furthermore, unless otherwise stated, any specific dimensions mentioned in this description are merely representative of an example implementation of a device embodying aspects of the disclosure and are not intended to be limiting.
The use of the term “about” applies to all numeric values specified herein, whether or not explicitly indicated. This term generally refers to a range of numbers that one of ordinary skill in the art would consider as a reasonable amount of deviation to the recited numeric values (i.e., having the equivalent function or result) in the context of the present disclosure. For example, and not intended to be limiting, this term can be construed as including a deviation of ±10 percent of the given numeric value provided such a deviation does not alter the end function or result of the value. Therefore, under some circumstances as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art a value of about 1% can be construed to be a range from 0.9% to 1.1%.
As used herein, the term “adjacent” refers to being near or adjoining. Adjacent objects can be spaced apart from one another or can be in actual or direct contact with one another. In some instances, adjacent objects can be coupled to one another or can be formed integrally with one another.
As used herein, the terms “substantially” and “substantial” refer to a considerable degree or extent. When used in conjunction with, for example, an event, circumstance, characteristic, or property, the terms can refer to instances in which the event, circumstance, characteristic, or property occurs precisely as well as instances in which the event, circumstance, characteristic, or property occurs to a close approximation, such as accounting for typical tolerance levels or variability of the examples described herein.
As used herein, the terms “optional” and “optionally” mean that the subsequently described, component, structure, element, event, circumstance, characteristic, property, etc. may or may not be included or occur and that the description includes instances where the component, structure, element, event, circumstance, characteristic, property, etc. is included or occurs and instances in which it is not or does not.
According to various examples, assemblies and devices as described herein may be used in combination with a fluid cartridge that may comprise one or more fluid processing passageways including one or more elements, for example, one or more of a channel, a branch channel, a valve, a flow splitter, a vent, a port, an access area, a via, a bead, a reagent containing bead, a cover layer, a reaction component, any combination thereof, and the like. Any element may be in fluid communication with another element.
The term “fluid communication” means either direct fluid communication, for example, two regions can be in fluid communication with each other via an unobstructed fluid processing passageway connecting the two regions or can be capable of being in fluid communication, for example, two regions can be capable of fluid communication with each other when they are connected via a fluid processing passageway that can comprise a valve disposed therein, wherein fluid communication can be established between the two regions upon actuating the valve, for example, by dissolving a dissolvable valve, bursting a bustable valve, or otherwise opening a valve disposed in the fluid processing passageway.
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In one example, each flow cell bracket 40 is configured to move along both the frame board 20 and the flow cell 30 in a longitudinal direction with respect to the frame board 20. Accordingly, the position of the gasket strip 400 with respect to the flow cell 30 may be adjusted by shifting the flow cell bracket 40 in the longitudinal direction. The flow cell bracket 40 may be shifted to an interface position along the flow cell 30. When the flow cell bracket 40 is set at the interface position, the gasket strip 400 is oriented such that each one of the openings 410 of the gasket strip 400 is generally aligned with a corresponding inlet or outlet port of the flow cell 30.
Details of the fluid dispenser assembly 100 are shown in
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In one example, each sidewall 250 includes a niche 255 extending along its exterior surface 254, where a hinge 266 is mounted to receive an end of a respective leg 264 of the clamp arm 260. In one example, the manifold retention bracket 240 includes a locking mechanism to releasably lock the clamp arm 260 against the pair of sidewalls 250 when the clamp arm 260 is set in the locking position. In one example, the locking mechanism includes a magnet 268 disposed at the intersection between the handle bar 262 and the respective leg 264 so that the clamp arm 260 is configured to be magnetically coupled to at least one of the sidewalls 250 when the clamp arm 260 is set in the locking position. The pair of sidewalls 250 may include a magnetic material, such as steel, to promote magnetic attraction to magnet 268. In other examples, the magnet 268 may be disposed at other locations along the clamp arm 260, and a second magnet (not shown) may be disposed along the sidewalls 250 such that the second magnet couples to magnet 268 when the clamp arm 260 is set in the locking position. The magnet(s) could be disposed in one or both sidewalls 250 and a magnetic material may be provided in an overlapping portion of the clamp arm 260. In alternative examples, the clamp arm 260 can be releasably secured in a locking position by other locking mechanisms, such as, a detent(s), clasp(s), etc.
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When the fluid cartridge 10 is initially placed on the fluid cartridge support surface 201, the contact between the flow cell 30 and the engagement surface 276 applies a force toward the base board 280, which urges the compression spring 290 against the resting surface 286. In return, the potential energy of the compression spring 290 is released applying a restoring force against the seal bar 270 in a direction towards the fluid cartridge 10. Accordingly, the engagement surface 276 of the seal bar 270 presses the flow cell 30 of the fluid cartridge 10 in a direction towards the manifold 300 when held by the manifold retention bracket 240.
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After placing the fluid cartridge 10 on the support surface 201 of the docking console 200, the next process 520 of the method 500 includes placing the manifold 300 on the docking console 200 by inserting the first arm 310 into recess 253A of one of the sidewalls 250 and the second arm 312 into recess 253B of the other one of the sidewalls 250. During both the processes of placing the fluid cartridge 10 on the cartridge support surface 201 and the manifold 300 on the manifold retention bracket 240, the clamp arm 260 is set at the release position.
Once the arms 310, 312 of the manifold 300 are received in the recesses 253 of the sidewalls 250, the next process 530 of the method includes moving the clamp arm 260 of the manifold retention bracket 240 from the release position to the locking position, thereby holding the manifold 300 against the fluid cartridge 10 such that the one or more wells 320 are in fluid communication with the ports and channels of the flow cell 30. When clamp arm 260 is set to the locking position and holds the manifold 300 against the fluid cartridge 10, the rings 420 of the gasket strip 400 are compressed between the bottom surface 322 of each one of the wells 320 and the upper surface of the flow cell 30 to form a fluid sealed connection between the outlet aperture 324 of each one of the wells 320 and the inlet ports of the flow cell 30, as shown in
After moving the clamp arm 260 to the locking position to form a fluid a seal connection between the manifold 300 and the flow cell 30, the next process 540 of the method includes dispensing a fluid sample into the one or more wells 320 of the manifold 300 such that the fluid sample is dispersed into the inlet ports and through the channels (e.g., by capillary action) of the flow cell 30. While the fluid sample is dispensed into the one or more wells 320 of the manifold 300, the hydrophilic porous frit 330 in each one of the wells 320 only permits liquid from the fluid sample to pass through the outlet aperture 324 and mitigates, and in some instances even prevents, bubbles from flowing through the outlet aperture 324. By only allowing liquid to pass through the outlet aperture 324 of each one of the wells 320, the hydrophilic porous frit 330 ensures that fluid may flow across the length of the channels in the flow cell 30 by only capillary attraction. The fill gage 204 may indicate visually the progress of the fluid sample flowing through the channels of the flow cell 30.
Once the fluid sample is completely, or at least substantially completely, dispersed into the flow cell 30 of the fluid cartridge 10, the next process 550 of the method includes moving the clamp arm 260 from the locking position to the release position. As shown in
All possible combinations of elements and components described in the specification or recited in the claims are contemplated and considered to be part of this disclosure. It should be appreciated that all combinations of the foregoing concepts and additional concepts discussed in greater detail below (provided such concepts are not mutually inconsistent) are contemplated as being part of the inventive subject matter disclosed herein. In particular, all combinations of claimed subject matter appearing at the end of this disclosure are contemplated as being part of the inventive subject matter disclosed herein.
In the appended claims, the term “including” is used as the plain-English equivalent of the respective term “comprising.” The terms “comprising” and “including” are intended herein to be open-ended, including not only the recited elements, but further encompassing any additional elements. Moreover, in the following claims, the terms “first,” “second,” and “third,” etc. are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects. Further, the limitations of the following claims are not written in means-plus-function format and are not intended to be interpreted based on 35 U.S.C. § 112, sixth paragraph, unless and until such claim limitations expressly use the phrase “means for” followed by a statement of function void of further structure.
While the subject matter of this disclosure has been described and shown in considerable detail with reference to certain illustrative examples, including various combinations and sub-combinations of features, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate other examples and variations and modifications thereof as encompassed within the scope of the present disclosure. Moreover, the descriptions of such examples, combinations, and sub-combinations is not intended to convey that the claimed subject matter requires features or combinations of features other than those expressly recited in the claims. Accordingly, the scope of this disclosure is intended to include all modifications and variations encompassed within the spirit and scope of the following appended claims.
This application is a divisional of and claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §§ 120, 121 of the filing date of non-provisional patent application Ser. No. 16/127,882 filed Sep. 11, 2018, which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of the filing date of provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/564,466 filed Sep. 28, 2017, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16127882 | Sep 2018 | US |
| Child | 17507254 | US |
