DR. WILLIAM A WALKER, MD
Radiology at Emerald Ave, Knoxville, TN

4740472, Apr 26, 1988

Aug 5, 1985

6/762368

Carl A. Burtis - Oak Ridge TN
Wayne F. Johnson - Loudon TN
William A. Walker - Knoxville TN

The United States of America as represented by the United States
Department of Energy - Washington DC

B04B 502, B04B 1100, B01D 2126

436 63

A rotor and disc assembly for use in a centrifugal fast analyzer. The assembly is designed to process multiple samples of whole blood followed by aliquoting of the resultant serum into precisely measured samples for subsequent chemical analysis. The assembly requires minimal operator involvement with no mechanical pipetting. The system comprises (1) a whole blood sample disc, (2) a serum sample disc, (3) a sample preparation rotor, and (4) an analytical rotor. The blood sample disc and serum sample disc are designed with a plurality of precision bore capillary tubes arranged in a spoked array. Samples of blood are loaded into the blood sample disc in capillary tubes filled by capillary action and centrifugally discharged into cavities of the sample preparation rotor where separation of serum and solids is accomplished. The serum is loaded into the capillaries of the serum sample disc by capillary action and subsequently centrifugally expelled into cuvettes of the analytical rotor for analysis by conventional methods.

5173262, Dec 22, 1992

May 30, 1989

7/359007

Carl A. Burtis - Oak Ridge TN
Wayne F. Johnson - Loudon TN
William A. Walker - Knoxville TN

Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc. - Oak Ridge TN

G01N 110, G01N 930, G01N 3500, B04B 502

422 72

A rotor assembly for performing a relatively large number of processing steps upon a sample, such as a whole blood sample, and a diluent, such as water, includes a rotor body for rotation about an axis and including a network of chambers within which various processing steps are performed upon the sample and diluent and passageways through which the sample and diluent are transferred. A transfer mechanism is movable through the rotor body by the influence of a magnetic field generated adjacent the transfer mechanism and movable along the rotor body, and the assembly utilizes centrifugal force, a transfer of momentum and capillary action to perform any of a number of processing steps such as separation, aliquoting, transference, washing, reagent addition and mixing of the sample and diluent within the rotor body. The rotor body is particularly suitable for automatic immunoassay analyses.

5242803, Sep 7, 1993

May 5, 1992

7/878799

Carl A. Burtis - Oak Ridge TN
Wayne F. Johnson - Loudon TN
William A. Walker - Knoxville TN

Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc. - Oak Ridge TN

G01N 3353, G01N 33543

435 792

A rotor assembly for carrying out an assay includes a rotor body which is rotatable about an axis of rotation, and has a central chamber and first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth chambers which are in communication with and radiate from the central chamber. The rotor assembly further includes a shuttle which is movable through the central chamber and insertable into any of the chambers, the shuttle including a reaction cup carrying an immobilized antigen or an antibody for transport among the chambers. A method for carrying out an assay using the rotor assembly includes moving the reaction cup among the six chambers by passing the cup through the central chamber between centrifugation steps in order to perform the steps of: separating plasma from blood cells, binding plasma antibody or antigen, washing, drying, binding enzyme conjugate, reacting with enzyme substrate and optically comparing the resulting reaction product with unreacted enzyme substrate solution. The movement of the reaction cup can be provided by attaching a magnet to the reaction cup and supplying a moving magnetic field to the rotor.

4835106, May 30, 1989

Jul 17, 1987

7/074739

Wayne F. Johnson - Loudon TN
Carl A. Burtis - Oak Ridge TN
William A. Walker - Knoxville TN

Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc. - Oak Ridge TN

G01N 110, G01N 2107

436 45

A rotor assembly for processing liquids, especially whole blood samples, is disclosed. The assembly includes apparatus for separating non-liquid components of whole blood samples from liquid components, apparatus for diluting the separated liquid component with a diluent and apparatus for transferring the diluted sample to an external apparatus for analysis. The rotor assembly employs several movable capillary tubes to handle the sample and diluents. A method for using the rotor assembly to process liquids is also described.