There is provided a well plate including a plate and a well which is opened in an upper surface of the plate, wherein the well includes a flat bottom surface part and a circumferential wall part rising upward from the circumferential edge of the bottom surface part; the circumferential wall part has a stepped part in the circumferential direction at an arbitrary height position; an upper circumferential wall part, which is located above the stepped part in the circumferential wall part, is larger in a cross sectional area than a lower circumferential wall part located below; and the stepped part indicates the lower limit of the liquid level height of a liquid sample contained in the well.

Disclosed is a detection apparatus that transfers magnetic particles through a plurality of chambers in a cartridge which includes the plurality of chambers and a channel connecting between the plurality of chambers, and that causes the magnetic particles to carry a complex of a test substance and a labelling substance, to detect the test substance on the basis of the labelling substance in the complex. The detection apparatus includes: a rotation mechanism configured to rotate the cartridge about a rotation shaft; a magnet configured to collect the magnetic particles in the chambers; a movement mechanism configured to move the magnet in a direction different from a circumferential direction of a circle in which the rotation shaft is centered; a detector configured to detect the test substance; and a controller programmed to control the rotation mechanism and the movement mechanism so as to transfer the magnetic particles from one of the chambers to another one of the chambers.

An apparatus for individually storing multiple tissue samples separately from each other includes a base, a lid, a lock, and one or more vents. The base defines a plurality of reservoirs and a plurality of identification areas. A portion of the base defines an opening corresponding to each reservoir. The lid is configured to secure the multiple tissue samples within a corresponding reservoir by enclosing each corresponding opening in the closed configuration. The lock is configured to selectively lock the lid against the base in the closed configuration. The one or more vents are configured to enable entry of fluid into the reservoirs when the lid is in the closed configuration. The one or more vents are further configured to prevent exit of tissue samples from the reservoirs when the lid is in the closed configuration.

Methods and containers are provided for identifying a species, illustratively a bacterial species. Illustrative methods comprise amplifying various genes in the nucleic acid from the bacterial species in a single reaction mixture using pairs of outer first-stage primers designed to hybridize to generally conserved regions of the respective genes to generate a plurality of first-stage amplicons, dividing the reaction mixture into a plurality of second-stage reactions, each using a unique pair of second-stage primers, each pair of second-stage primers specific for a target bacterial species or subset of bacterial species, detecting which of the second-stage reactions amplified, and identifying the bacterial species based on second-stage amplification. Methods for determining antibiotic resistance are also provided, such methods also using first-stage primers for amplifying genes known to affect antibiotic resistance a plurality of the second-stage reactions wherein each pair of second-stage primers specific for a specific gene for conferring antibiotic resistance.

A device for processing a sample comprises a blister defined by first and second walls. The first wall is flexible allowing the blister to be divided into one or more sealed regions by an external pressure applied to a portion of the first wall. The external pressure is applied in the form of a 2-dimensional shape to form a sealed region having that shape.

A moisture-tight, re-sealable container is disclosed having a lid and body. The lid and body have a non-round seal that is substantially moisture tight when the lid is seated on the body, admitting less than 1000 micrograms per day of water to a package. A reinforcement stiffens or reinforces at least a portion of the seal against inward deflection along an axis defined by the minor diameter when the lid is seated on the body. Optionally the reinforcement is at least one spline subdividing the reservoir. A method of making dispensers for objects of varying length to customize particular dispensers to dispense such objects of a particular length is also disclosed.

A tube for mixing, diluting and preserving a sample includes a hollow first container for receiving and storing a solution, the first container having first and second ends, wherein at least the first end has a through-hole, and a transport-pin located in the through-hole of the first end having a shape closely matching to the through-hole, the transport-pin including a recess with a predetermined size. The recess is suitable to be filled by a sample, wherein the transport-pin is movable between an initial position in which the recess is positioned at least partially on the outer side of the first container, and an end position in which the recess is positioned at least partially on the inner side of the first container.

A method for processing particles contained in a liquid biological sample is presented. The method uses a rotatable vessel for processing particles contained in a liquid biological sample. The rotatable vessel has a longitudinal axis about which the vessel is rotatable, an upper portion comprising a top opening for receiving the liquid comprising the particles, a lower portion for holding the liquid while the rotatable vessel is resting, the lower portion comprising a bottom, and an intermediate portion located between the upper portion and the lower portion, the intermediate portion comprising a lateral collection chamber for holding the liquid while the rotatable vessel is rotating. The method employs dedicated acceleration and deceleration profiles for sedimentation and re-suspension of the particles of interest.

An apparatus for sequencing a polynucleotide analyte is provided and comprises; •a first zone in which a stream of single nucleotides is generated by progressive digestion of a molecule of the analyte attached to a particle located therein and exposed to a flowing aqueous medium; •a second zone in which a corresponding stream of aqueous droplets is generated from the aqueous medium and the nucleotide stream and wherein at least some of the droplets contain a single nucleotide and •a third zone in which each droplet is stored and/or interrogated to reveal a property characteristic of the single nucleotide it may contain; characterised in that the first zone comprises a microfluidic channel through which the aqueous medium flows and the location comprises a hollow seating in a wall thereof to which suction can be applied and into which the particle can be close-fitted.

The present disclosure provides methods and systems for assaying a sample. A microfluidic device to perform an assay of a sample (e.g., biological sample) is described having a sample application site, a porous component and a flow channel. The porous component provides for uniform dissolution of a reagent and mixing of the sample and reagent without filtering the sample.