AUTOMATED APPARATUS FOR SEPARATING A BIOLOGICAL SAMPLE FROM A TWO DIMENSIONAL ELECTROPHORESIS GEL

摘要

An automated high-throughput system (10) for excising spots or samples from an electrophoresis slab gel includes a computer controlled robotic arm assembly (24) and a sample plate handling assembly (16) for supplying a sample plate to a loading station (150). The computer (20) is connected to a scanner and imaging device (14) to identify selected sample locations on the slab gel and to direct the robotic arm to the selected locations for excising the gel spots. The cutting assembly (12) includes a removable tray (34) for supporting the slab gel during the cutting process and is coupled to the automated sample plate handling assembly (16) which delivers a multiwell plate (120) to the cutting assembly (12) for receiving the gel spots. The removable tray (34) cooperates with a scanner for identifying protein spots and includes a positioning device (32) to position the tray (34) in the scanner and the cutting assembly (12) in selected locations to coordinate the scanned image with the cutting process.