Apparatuses for preparing a sample are disclosed herein. The apparatuses include a chamber, a first valve at least partially disposed in the first chamber, a second valve at least partially disposed in the first chamber, and a pump comprising an actuator and nozzle.

A parallel processing system for processing samples is described. In one embodiment, the parallel processing system includes an instrument interface parallel controller to control a tray motor driving system, a close-loop heater control and detection system, a magnetic particle transfer system, a reagent release system, a reagent pre-mix pumping system and a wash buffer pumping system.

A method of flowing a fluid with a tracer in a microfluidic channel of an assay device and detecting the tracer for determining the channel location or condition of the channel.

The instant invention provides an economical flow-through method for determining amount of target proteins in a sample. An antibody preparation (whether polyclonal or monoclonal, or any equivalent specific binding agent) is used to capture and thus enrich a specific monitor peptide (a specific peptide fragment of a protein to be quantitated in a proteolytic digest of a complex protein sample) and an internal standard peptide (the same chemical structure but including stable isotope labels). Upon elution into a suitable mass spectrometer, the natural (sample derived) and internal standard (isotope labeled) peptides are quantitated, and their measured abundance ratio used to calculate the abundance of the monitor peptide, and its parent protein, in the initial sample.

A method of flowing a fluid with a tracer in a microfluidic channel of an assay device and detecting the tracer for determining the channel location or condition of the channel.

Apparatuses for preparing a sample are disclosed herein. The apparatuses include a chamber, a first valve at least partially disposed in the first chamber, a second valve at least partially disposed in the first chamber, and a pump comprising an actuator and nozzle.

The formulations, systems, and methods disclosed herein permit automated preparation of specimens (e.g., biological specimens) for examination. The disclosed formulations, systems, and methods provide fast, efficient, and highly uniform specimen processing using minimal quantities of fluids. The methods include at least a fixing phase for fixing a specimen to a substrate such as a microscope slide, a staining phase for staining the specimen, and a rinsing phase for rinsing the specimen. One or more of the fixing, staining, and rinsing phases include one or more agitation phases for distributing reagents evenly and uniformly across the specimen. The systems can be implemented as a standalone device or as a component in a larger system for preparing and examining specimens.

A standard material that is used for judging an abnormal portion in a particle analyzer is described. The standard material comprises first standard particles to be fluorescence-stained by a fluorescence-staining treatment and second standard particles that have preliminarily contained a fluorescence dye. A method and an analyzer that can judge an abnormal portion in a particle analyzer by using such a standard material are also described.

Apparatuses for preparing a sample are disclosed herein. The apparatuses include a chamber, a first valve at least partially disposed in the first chamber, a second valve at least partially disposed in the first chamber, and a pump comprising an actuator and nozzle.

A liquid chromatography method for identifying an analyte of interest utilizing as retention index standards a homologous series of neutrally charged compounds having at least one functional group bearing a positive charge and at least one functional group bearing a negative charge. The method is especially useful for liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) methods, more especially for LC-MS methods employing electrospray (ESI) or atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) ionization systems.