An apparatus and method are described that achieve independent and simultaneous processing of a plurality of substrate-supported biological samples. In one embodiment, substrate holders arranged in a minor arc are independently moveable between a processing position and an access position, and reagents are delivered to substrates held in the substrate holders through a nozzle plate that moves along the arc of substrate holders. The disclosed apparatus and method are particularly suited for implementation of lean processing of biological samples.

An analytical device includes a substrate, which is provided with a plurality of cells, and a pressing member that presses an analysis chip; an item-information reading unit that reads item information of the analysis chip; a stain detection mechanism that includes a processor stores, in a memory, stain-related information on each of the cells, the stain-related information including stain information related to presence or absence of a stain on each of the cells and previous item information that is item information of a loaded analysis chip, the stain information and the previous item information being associated with each other; and the processor that executes, before loading of a to-be-loaded analysis chip to be loaded in a to-be-used cell, carryover suppression processing for suppressing carryover, in which a stain due to previous measurement affects current measurement, based on stain-related information and current item information.

The present invention relates to a sample preparation system comprising a surface selection module for identifying one or more preparation discs having a preparation surface for materialographic sample preparation, the surface selection module comprises a support system having three or more shelves, such as five or more shelves each arranged to support a preparation disc having a preparation surface, for each shelf, the surface selection module comprises a reflecting surface arranged to direct electromagnetic waves reflected from a characteristic identification mark of the preparation disc to a sensing position located external to the support system, the surface selection module further comprises an optical sensor arranged to sense the characteristic identification mark in the sensing position and to provide an identification output accordingly, the sample preparation system further comprises a mechanical processing unit comprising a support arrangement with a plane support surface on which the preparation discs may be held in place during sample preparation by means of a fixation arrangement, a transfer unit for transferring a preparation disc having a preparation surface from the support system to the plane support surface of the mechanical processing unit, and a control unit arranged to control the transfer unit in response to the identification output, the invention further relates to a preparation disc and a method of identifying one or more preparation discs.

Control processes for a slide-scanning system comprising a carousel with a plurality of rack slots configured to receive slide racks via an exposed portion of the scanning system. In an embodiment, initializing the scanning system comprises automatically homing back-end and front-end components, wherein the front-end components comprise the carousel. An inventory of all slide racks in the carousel is automatically generated. If any slide rack was being processed by any back-end components, the slide rack is automatically unloaded into a corresponding rack slot. In addition, the carousel is automatically positioned to expose a starting subset of the rack slots within the exposed portion. This starting subset may comprise a maximum segment of adjacent empty rack slots.

A full-automatic preparation method of a cast-off cell smear includes the following steps: S1: pretreatment of a cast-off cell: automatically pretreating the cast-off cell to be prepared to remove interfering substances; S2: automatically transferring a pretreated cast-off cell to a cyclic settling module to allow constant-temperature settling, and staining and moisturizing the pretreated cast-off cell; and S3: subjecting a moisturized cast-off cell to automatic liquid sealing. The full-automatic preparation method of the cast-off cell smear realizes the automation of smear preparation, staining, and sealing, and also realizes the unattended high-throughput output and the high-quality smear preparation and sealing.