A method of controlling a needle actuator to interact with a cell is provided, the method comprising: providing an actuator comprising a tower, a stage and a needle, wherein the needle is mounted on the stage; applying an electrostatic potential between the tower and the stage to retract the needle; moving the actuator towards the cell; reducing the potential so as to allow the stage and needle to move towards the cell; applying calibration data to detect when the needle has pierced the cell; and reducing the potential further once it has been detected that the needle has pierced the cell. The cell can be a biological cell. The needle can be a micro-needle and the stage can be a micro-stage.

A method of controlling a needle actuator to interact with a cell is provided, the method comprising: providing an actuator comprising a tower, a stage and a needle, wherein the needle is mounted on the stage; applying an electrostatic potential between the tower and the stage to retract the needle; moving the actuator towards the cell; reducing the potential so as to allow the stage and needle to move towards the cell; applying calibration data to detect when the needle has pierced the cell; and reducing the potential further once it has been detected that the needle has pierced the cell. The cell can be a biological cell. The needle can be a micro-needle and the stage can be a micro-stage.

Provided is a method for producing a cell contained base, the method being capable of providing a cell contained base highly accurately controlled in number of nucleic acid molecules contained in a low-concentration nucleic acid standard sample, the method including a liquid droplet discharging step of discharging a cell suspension in the form of a liquid droplet with a liquid droplet discharging unit onto a base including at least one cell contained region; a cell number counting step of counting a number of cells contained in the liquid droplet with a plurality of sensors from two or more directions while the liquid droplet is flying into the cell contained region; and a liquid droplet landing step of landing the liquid droplet in the at least one cell contained region in a manner that a predetermined number of cells are located in the at least one cell contained region.

Provided is a method for producing a cell contained base, the method being capable of providing a cell contained base highly accurately controlled in number of nucleic acid molecules contained in a low-concentration nucleic acid standard sample, the method including a liquid droplet discharging step of discharging a cell suspension in the form of a liquid droplet with a liquid droplet discharging unit onto a base including at least one cell contained region; a cell number counting step of counting a number of cells contained in the liquid droplet with a plurality of sensors from two or more directions while the liquid droplet is flying into the cell contained region; and a liquid droplet landing step of landing the liquid droplet in the at least one cell contained region in a manner that a predetermined number of cells are located in the at least one cell contained region.

A component extraction apparatus includes a rack placement part, a heater, an extraction medium supply part, a needle assembly, and a temperature sensor. When the container rack is mounted on the rack placement part, a heater is configured to heat the sample containers in direct or indirect contact with sample containers held by the container rack. The needle assembly holds a needle with a tip thereof pointing downward, and the needle being configured to connect a flow channel by inserting the tip thereof into a needle port provided on an upper surface of each of the sample containers. The temperature sensor is included in the needle assembly and is configured to detect a temperature of the upper surface of any one of the sample containers when the tip of the needle is inserted into the needle port of the one of the sample containers.

The invention relates to an apparatus for optically monitoring the dosing of a liquid to be pipetted for an automatic analysis unit. The apparatus comprises a dosing device, comprising a pipetting needle for pipetting the liquid, a lighting device for illuminating a drop of the liquid adhering to the pipetting needle, a camera with a set of optics to capture an image of the drop of the liquid, and an evaluation device for characterizing the drop of liquid by means of an automatic analysis of the image of the drop of liquid.

A dispensing device that dispenses a liquid sample with a target weight x (in grams) includes: a pipette that discharges the liquid sample into a vessel; and a controller that controls the pipette. The controller performs: first liquid discharge processing in which the controller discharges the liquid sample with a volume of (x/ρ0×y) milliliters (mL) into the pipette, where y is a numeric value greater than 0 and smaller than 1, and ρ0 is the tentative density (in grams per mL) of the liquid sample; first weight acquisition processing in which the controller acquires information about the weight z (in grams) of the liquid sample discharged in first liquid discharge processing; density calculation processing in which the controller calculates the density p (in grams/mL) of the liquid sample according to the expression ρ=z/(x/ρ0×y); and second liquid discharge processing in which the controller discharges, into the pipette, the liquid sample with a volume based on the density ρ, weight z, and target weight x.

The invention relates to an apparatus (10) for placing mixing balls (1) into pharmaceutical containers (2), comprising a transport device (30) for conveying, preferably intermittently, the containers (2), and comprising a feed device (45) for the mixing balls (1), wherein the feed device (45) can be moved between a position for removing mixing balls (1) from a storage means (46) and a position for transferring the mixing balls (1) into the containers (2).

A droplet (415) is ejected from a surface (411) of a fluid sample containing an analyte using an ejector (420). A solvent is pumped into a solvent inlet (432) of an open port probe (OPP) (430) spaced apart from the surface using a pump (438). The solvent is pumped to send it from the solvent inlet (432) to a tip (431) of the OPP (430) through a solvent capillary (434) of the OPP (430), receive the droplet (415) at the tip (431) where the droplet is combined with the solvent to form an analyte-solvent dilution, and transport the dilution from the tip (431) to an output (435) of the OPP (430) through a sample capillary (436) of the OPP (430). The solvent is heated to a temperature above a threshold temperature using a heating element (437). The solvent is heated to reduce the viscosity of the solvent below a threshold viscosity and maintain the viscosity below the threshold viscosity as the dilution is transported from the tip (431) to the outlet (435).

Described herein are method of transferring liquid using a robotic liquid handler from a reagent reservoir having a sloped bottom along a length of the reagent reservoir, the sloped bottom defining a shallow end and a deep end of the reagent reservoir, wherein the shallow end is proximal to a first side-wall of the reagent reservoir, wherein the deep end is proximal to a second side-wall of the reagent reservoir opposite the first side-wall.