According to an aspect of the present invention, provided is an immunoassay device including: a control unit controlling relative movement of a stage, which accommodates a cartridge having a plurality of wells, and a solution transfer unit including a tip and the suction and discharge of a solution into/from the tip, wherein the solution transfer unit includes: a driving part providing a pressure for suctioning and discharging the solution into/from the tip; and a magnetic force applying part installed at one side of the tip to apply magnetic force toward the tip, wherein the control unit controls the driving part so that a magnitude of the magnetic force applied to the tip by the magnetic force applying part is adjusted to hold magnetic particles inside the tip after the solution containing the magnetic particles is suctioned into the tip.

An automatic analysis device includes a probe that performs a dispensing operation including a suction process and a discharge process with respect to liquid; a syringe that generates a pressure change for dispensing liquid at the probe; a flow path that connects the probe and the syringe with each other; a pressure sensor that measures the pressure change in the flow path at the time of liquid dispensing; a storage portion that stores a pressure change of time-series when reference fluid is discharged as a reference discharge pressure waveform; and a determination portion that determines whether or not there is an abnormality in the suction process of the sample from a relationship between a value of difference or a ratio between the reference discharge pressure waveform and the pressure waveform of a determination target at the time of discharge of liquid and normal range.

A pipette tip extension attachable to a pipette tip is disclosed. The pipette tip extension has a proximal end, a distal end, and an exterior wall extending between the proximal end and the distal end. The exterior wall has an outer side and an inner side and forms at the proximal end a reception aperture for inserting a pipette tip. The pipette tip extension further has a bottom at the distal end, an inner cavity enclosed by the inner side of the exterior wall and the bottom, one or more distance elements arranged at the inner side of the exterior wall and protruding into the inner cavity, and a coating for interacting with a fluid present in a fluid uptake area.

A biological sample processing apparatus, including: a pipette block with which a plurality of pipettes for sucking or discharging a biological sample in a multi-well plate in which wells are arranged in a matrix shape along row and column directions are detachably coupled; a pipette block forward and backward transfer unit configured to move the pipette block along a forward and backward direction along a process direction; a pipette block top and bottom transfer unit configured to move the pipette block along a vertical direction; a magnetic field applying unit disposed below the multi-well plate for applying a magnetic field to a well of the multi-well plate; and a heating unit disposed below the multi-well plate so as to be spaced apart from the magnetic field applying unit, for heating a well of the multi-well plate.

A particle dispersion method for dispersing particles (500) fixed on the inner surface of a container (12) into a liquid. The particle dispersion method includes a discharge step of discharging a liquid into the container (12). The container (12) has a cylindrical main body part (310), and an inclined part (311) having an inner diameter that decreases from the main body part (310) side to the bottom part side and having a constant angle relative to the central axis of the container. In the discharge step, the liquid is discharged from above the inclined part (311) toward the inclined part (311) on the side opposite the particles (500) fixed to the inner surface of the container (12) across the central axis (300) of the container (12).

Operations performed according to the example techniques described herein include controlling a probe to pierce a stopper of a container containing a substance, where the stopper provides an air-tight seal for the container, and where the air-tight seal supports an internal pressure in the container. The operations also include detecting the internal pressure based on information from a pressure sensor; determining that the internal pressure is not at a target pressure and, based on determining that the internal pressure is not at the target pressure, controlling the probe either to aspirate air from the container or to dispense air into the container in order to move the internal pressure toward the target pressure.

A pipette tip extension attachable to a pipette tip is disclosed. The pipette tip extension has a proximal end, a distal end, and an exterior wall extending between the proximal end and the distal end. The exterior wall has an outer side and an inner side and forms at the proximal end a reception aperture for inserting a pipette tip. The pipette tip extension also has a bottom at the distal end, an inner cavity enclosed by the inner side of the exterior wall and the bottom, and one or more distance elements arranged at the inner side of the exterior wall and protruding into the inner cavity.

A pipette tip extension attachable to a pipette tip having a proximal end, a distal end, and an exterior wall extending between the proximal end and the distal end is disclosed. The exterior wall has an outer side and an inner side and forms at the proximal end a reception aperture for inserting a pipette tip, and at the distal end a dispense aperture. The pipette tip extension further has an inner cavity, a distance element connected to the inner side of the exterior wall, and a constriction element.

A device for collecting a biological sample from a semi-solid surface. The device has a shaft with a proximate end and a distal end and a tip integrated with the shaft at the proximate end. The tip has a surface adapted to collect microorganisms thereon or release microorganism from, or both, wherein the adapted surface comprises at least one feature of a recess or extension to increase surface area of the tip and collect microorganisms thereon. Examples of such features include microfeatures with dimensions of about 1000 μm or less. Other examples include a pipette tip.

A method using a chemical analyzer for removing a component of a liquid sample which may interfere with a test performed on a test assay includes the steps of adding the liquid sample to a sample cup, transferring a volume of the liquid sample to a mixing cup containing an IMAC (Immobilized Metal Affinity Chromatography) resin containing porous beads to form a sample/resin solution in the mixing cup, using a pipette of the chemical analyzer to repeatedly aspirate the sample/resin solution into a disposable pipette tip of the pipette and expelling the sample/resin solution from the pipette tip into the mixing cup to achieve a mixed sample/resin solution in the mixing cup, and allowing the mixed sample/resin solution in the mixing cup to rest undisturbed so that the interfering component of the liquid sample adheres to the porous beads and the beads settle to a bottom portion of the mixing cup, resulting in a refined liquid sample devoid of the interfering component and occupying an upper portion of the mixing cup for later dispensing on the test assay.