Automated capillary scanning system

摘要

A plurality of parallel spaced cylindrical capillary tubes contain single cells and/or cell colonies in a medium and gel-like agarose, and the tubes are carried by a frame-like holder supported by a motor driven X-Y translation stage of an automated microscope. The microscope also incorporates an electronic optical detector and an object lens located under the tube holder. The entire contents of each tube are internally illuminated by a precision light beam emitted from a helium-neon laser and reflected by a set of precisely positioned mirrors so that the beam extends axially through each tube when the tube extends across the vertical axis of the object lens. The contents of the tubes are sequentially scanned under the control of special software within a personal computer, and the intensity of the light reflected outwardly from each cell or cell colony is sensed by the detector and recorded in the computer along with the axial location of the reflecting cell or cell colony. Preferably, the laser light is pure red, the optical detector is sensitive to the red light, and the object lens is focused on the wall of the tube to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio and to obtain full field detection across each tube.