An electric field stirring apparatus, in which a droplet as a liquid disposed between a first electrode and a second electrode disposed to face each other is vibrated and stirred by an electric field generated between the first electrode and the second electrode, the second electrode having a groove formed along a first direction on an electrode surface facing the first electrode, includes a movement mechanism that reciprocally moves the first electrode relative to the second electrode in a second direction intersecting the first direction in a state in which the first electrode and the second electrode face each other during a period in which the electric field is generated.

A cell smearing apparatus comprising: a mixed solution container accommodation unit accommodating a mixed solution container containing a mixed solution of cells and a preservation solution; a suction unit suctioning the mixed solution from the mixed solution container accommodated in the mixed solution container accommodation unit; a sensor unit sensing variation of the mixed solution suctioned by the suction unit; and a controller controlling a suctioning speed of the suction unit based on a value sensed by the sensor unit. The present invention allows cells to be examined to be smeared as a monolayer on a slide for microscopic examination.

Disclosed in one aspect is a method for performing a complete blood count (CBC) on a sample of whole blood by metering a predetermined amount of the whole blood and mixing it with a predetermined amount of diluent and stain and transferring a portion thereof to an imaging chamber of fixed dimensions and utilizing an automated microscope with digital camera and cell counting and recognition software to count every white blood cell and red blood corpuscle and platelet in the sample diluent/stain mixture to determine the number of red cells, white cells, and platelets per unit volume, and analyzing the white cells with cell recognition software to classify them.

Acceleration and automation of immunohistochemical staining are achieved as follows: an automatic electric field immunohistochemical staining apparatus is configured to provided with a sample mounting unit, a solution supply unit, an electric field stifling unit, and a washing unit; the sample mounting unit on which a glass substrate with a tissue specimen fixed thereto is mounted and the electric field stirring unit that includes an upper electrode are operated in coordination to activate an antigen in the tissue specimen; the sample mounting unit and the solution supply unit containing various solutions are operated in coordination to supply a primary-antibody-containing solution to the tissue specimen; the sample mounting unit and the electric field stirring unit are operated in coordination to perform an antigen-antibody reaction of the antigen in the tissue specimen and a primary antibody; and the electric field stirring unit and the washing unit are operated in coordination.

Devices and methods for providing and dispensing opposables onto slides are provided in which magazines loaded with opposables include retention arms to reduce movement of the opposables during shipment and processing and to reduce or eliminate contamination.

A smear preparing apparatus according to one or more embodiments includes: a first transporter that transports a storage tool in a first direction, the storage tool capable of holding microscope slides side by side in the first direction; a slide transfer unit that transfers a microscope slide having a stained sample to the storage tool transported by the first transporter; and a second transporter that is adjacent to the first transporter and that transports the storage tool housing the microscope slide transferred by the slide transfer unit, in a second direction opposite to the first direction.

A QA test slide for use in a stain QA method for a stain and method of making QA test slides are described. The QA test slide comprises: a transparent substrate; a piece of biopolymer material mounted on the transparent substrate; and a sticker defining an aperture and adhered to the transparent substrate over the piece of biopolymer material and with a portion of the piece of biopolymer material exposed by the aperture and wherein a machine readable code is borne by the sticker and the machine readable code encodes a unique identifier for the QA test slide.

A system and method for treatment of biological samples is disclosed. In some embodiments, an automated biological sample staining system (100), comprising at least one microfluidic reagent applicator (118); at least one bulk fluid applicator (116); at least one fluid aspirator; at least one sample substrate holder; at least one relative motion system; and a control system (102) that is programmed to execute at least one staining protocol on a sample mounted on a substrate that is held in the at least one sample substrate holder.

An automated batch stainer for staining biological specimens on microscope slides. The automated batch stainer includes a slide rack assembly configured to hold microscope slides, a robotic arm that manipulates the slide rack assembly, at least one bath containing reagents and capable of receiving the slide rack assemblies, a heating chamber capable of heating multiple slide rack assemblies, a bar code reader, at least one software program including a graphical user interface and configured to calculate the timing and sequence of the staining protocol and implement the staining protocol by controlling the movements of the robotic arm.

Disclosed is a specimen smearing apparatus including: a slide supplying section configured to supply a glass slide yet to be processed; a first processing section configured to perform a first process on the glass slide, the first processing section being disposed in a first direction with respect to the slide supplying section, the first direction being a far direction of an apparatus body of the specimen smearing apparatus; a second processing section configured to perform on the glass slide a second process which is different from the first process, the second processing section being disposed in a second direction with respect to the first processing section, the second direction being a left-right direction of the apparatus body and orthogonal to the first direction; and a first drying processing section disposed in a third direction with respect to the second processing section, the third direction being a near direction of the apparatus body and opposite to the first direction, the first drying processing section configured to dry a specimen on the glass slide on which the first process and the second process have been performed, wherein one of the first processing section and the second processing section is configured to perform a smearing process for smearing a specimen on the glass slide.