Pipette tip couplers, pipette tips, coupler and tip combinations, and methods for coupling and decoupling a pipette tip to or from a pipette tip coupler mounted on a pipette device. The pipette tip couplers include a shank, a coupler body distal to the shank, a distal stem and distal end plate distal to the coupler body, a proximal elastomeric element disposed around the shank, a distal elastomeric element disposed around the distal stem, and a coupler stop shoulder surface between the proximal elastomeric element and distal elastomeric element. When a pipette tip is mounted on the pipette tip coupler, the proximal elastomeric element abuts the interior surface of the pipette tip for securing the pipette tip to the coupler, and the distal elastomeric element abuts the interior surface of the pipette tip to form a seal between the coupler and the pipette tip.

The present invention provides devices, systems, and methods for rapid and easy-to-use in sample thermal cycling or temperature changes for the facilitation of reactions such as but not limited to PCR.

Disclosed herein are a device and method for the easy removal of selected individual wells, selected groups/strips of wells, or all strips of wells quickly and safely from a well strip plate. A well strip extractor press may include a manually pivotable well strip plate carrier having an open bottom, and an adjustable well strip extractor assembly having multiple press arms positioned to engage the bottom of a well strip plate positioned in the well strip plate carrier. A user may manually position a selection of press arms to align with those well strips that the user wishes to remove from the well strip plate. The user may lower the plate carrier into a frame assembly that pivotably mounts the press arms, causing the selected well strips that are to be dislodged from the well strip plate to engage individual extractor pins on the selected press arms, in turn causing those extractor pins to push the bottom portions of the selected well strips upward so as to at least partially dislodge from their seating within the strip well plate. Thereafter, a user may slide the strip well plate out from the plate carrier and remove the selected well strips from the well strip plate with ease.

An adapter for connecting an array of pipette tips having through bores with conical upper ends to a multichannel air displacement pipettor having a plurality of ports with compliant internal sealing surfaces. The adapter comprises a planar base with an array of openings extending between its top and bottom surfaces. Sealing tubes project upwardly from the top surface, and tip mounting tubes project downwardly from the bottom surface, with pairs of sealing tubes and tip mounting tubes being arranged coaxially and in communication with respective ones of the openings in the base. The tip mounting tubes are externally dimensioned and configured for insertion into the conical upper ends of the pipette tips, and the sealing tubes are externally configured and dimensioned for insertion into the ports of the pipettor and into sealing interengagement with their compliant internal sealing surfaces.

A method and system for heating and/or inspecting a portable microfluidic assay cartridge for performing an assay includes receiving the assay cartridge on a receiving region of a translatable table under automated control, heating the cartridge, during performance of the assay, with a planar radiant heater plate, the heater plate having an aperture through which an inspection axis extends, and/or inspecting the cartridge using an optical system constructed to inspect the cartridge along the inspection axis by reading a fluorescent light signal which passes through the aperture in the heater plate. In addition, the cartridge moves with movement of the translation table, and the heater plate and optical system may be stationary, and the inspection axis may be fixed.

A system for partitioning a liquid sample, the system including: an ejection device, the ejection device comprising an array of nozzles, wherein adjacent nozzles are separated by a constant distance in a first axis; and a microfluidics device including: a plurality of intake ports to receive a deposited droplet, wherein pairs of intake ports are separated by the same constant distance in the same first axis such that adjacent nozzles can simultaneously eject droplets to different intake ports.

Pipette tip couplers, pipette tips, coupler and tip combinations, and methods for coupling and decoupling a pipette tip to or from an expanding mandrel collet coupling device. The pipette tip couplers include a central body, a spacer with cogs circumscribing the central body, an expanding mandrel collet circumscribing the spacer having an annular base and circumferentially spaced apart upwardly extending collet arms, and an elastomeric element circumscribing the central body. The cogs protrude through spaces between the collet arms. The collet arms are attached to the annular base and configured to expand between a first and a second circumference for engaging a first interior surface of the tip, with the elastomeric element sealing against a second interior surface below the first surface, and with an abutment between the cogs and a stepped interior shoulder of the pipette tip disposed between the first and second interior surfaces.

Pipette tip couplers, pipette tips, coupler and tip combinations, and methods for coupling and decoupling a pipette tip to or from, respectively, a pipette tip coupler mounted on a pipette device. The pipette tip couplers include an elastomeric element, a discrete segment assembly, and a coupler stop shoulder surface. The pipette tips include a groove in a first cylindrical section, a second cylindrical section, a tip stop shoulder surface at the interface of the first and second cylindrical sections, a third cylindrical section, a sealing seat surface at the interface of the second and third cylindrical sections, and a fourth section adjacent to the third cylindrical section. When the pipette tip is mounted on the pipette tip coupler, the discrete segment assembly abuts the tip groove, the coupler stop shoulder surface abuts the tip stop shoulder surface, and the elastomeric element abuts the sealing seat surface.

Pipette tip couplers, pipette tips, coupler and tip combinations, and methods for coupling and decoupling a pipette tip to or from an expanding mandrel collet coupling device. The pipette tip couplers include a central body, a spacer with cogs circumscribing the central body, an expanding mandrel collet circumscribing the spacer having an annular base and circumferentially spaced apart upwardly extending collet arms, and an elastomeric element circumscribing the central body. The cogs protrude through spaces between the collet arms. The collet arms are attached to the annular base and configured to expand between a first and a second circumference for engaging a first interior surface of the tip, with the elastomeric element sealing against a second interior surface below the first surface, and with an abutment between the cogs and a stepped interior shoulder of the pipette tip disposed between the first and second interior surfaces.

Pipette tip couplers, pipette tips, coupler and tip combinations, and methods for coupling and decoupling a pipette tip to or from a pipette tip coupler mounted on a pipette device. The pipette tip couplers include a shank, a coupler body distal to the shank, a distal stem and distal end plate distal to the coupler body, a proximal elastomeric element disposed around the shank, a distal elastomeric element disposed around the distal stem, and a coupler stop shoulder surface between the proximal elastomeric element and distal elastomeric element. When a pipette tip is mounted on the pipette tip coupler, the proximal elastomeric element abuts the interior surface of the pipette tip for securing the pipette tip to the coupler, and the distal elastomeric element abuts the interior surface of the pipette tip to form a seal between the coupler and the pipette tip.