Method and Apparatus for Online Procurement of Chemical Screening Assays

摘要

A method and apparatus for ordering a preloaded chemical assay plate. The method comprises the steps accessing an Internet based order entry site; viewing a list of target chemical compounds; creating an order on the order entry site that lists the desired target compounds for the assay; specifying one or more well plate parameters, such as the number of wells in a well plate that will be used to hold the target compounds; specifying one or more assay parameters in the order, such as specifying the final test volume and concentration of the target compounds in the wells; and placing the order from the order entry site. The apparatus comprises a server for accepting the customer order transmitted over the Internet; a storage means for electronically storing the list of target compounds; process control means for generating a work order that contains instructions for retrieving one or more working plates that contain the chemical compounds specified in the customer order; and assay printing means for acoustically dispensing the chemical compounds onto the assay substrate.