Abstract: A cartridge sealed from an external air is used to enable mixing with a reagent, agitating, purification, reaction, etc. Provided inside the cartridge sealed from the external air are a chamber for the reagent to be transported, a chamber to which the reagent is transported, and the chambers are connected by a liquid transport channel. A groove is made in a cartridge body and a membrane as an elastic body is pasted onto the groove to form the liquid transport channel. Air pressure is given to the membrane to change the volume of the liquid transport channel and thereby move the fluid inside. The inlet of each chamber has a valve function to move the fluid inside in a desired direction according to change of the liquid transport channel. This enables transportation of the liquid inside the cartridge sealed from the external air.

Abstract: During filling of a capillary with an electrophoresis medium, this electrophoresis medium receptacle maintains a resting state, and the capillary and the electrophoresis medium receptacle are readily sealed. The electrophoresis medium receptacle is simple in shape, the electrophoresis medium receptacle is readily manufactured, and the electrophoresis medium is readily sealed. The amount of the electrophoresis medium sealed in the electrophoresis medium receptacle is brought into approximation without limit to the amount of the electrophoresis medium filling the capillary, minimizing dead volume. In this electrophoresis medium receptacle, a receptacle filled with an electrophoresis medium is maintained in a sealed state, and a septum which can be pierced by a capillary cathode end is provided. The pressure produced when the capillary cathode end pierces the septum in which the receptacle filled with the electrophoresis medium is sealed transports the electrophoresis medium into the interior of a capillary.

Abstract: Provided is a nucleic acid analyzer, which does not require manual processes by a highly trained operator such as a researcher and is easy to use, small-sized, capable of accepting multiple samples, and performs speedy analysis, and a nucleic acid analysis method using the analyzer. The analyzer and method perform detection in a plurality of exposure times, provide a program for determining a threshold for signal detection, and determine whether a faint signal peak is a false signal peak.

Abstract: The liquid feeding device includes a branched portion at which a fluid is branched into a main flow passage that feeds the fluid from an upstream side to a downstream side and a first flow passage being branched from the main flow passage; a narrow flow passage being provided at a terminal end portion, and has a smaller cross-sectional area than the first flow passage; and a liquid feeding mechanism which feeds the fluid to the main flow passage and the first flow passage, wherein the narrow flow passage suppresses the fluid, being fed from the main flow passage side to the first flow passage using the mechanism in the branched portion, from leaking from first flow passage, quantitatively determines fluid as a first volume by filling the first flow passage, which has the first volume, with the fluid, and feeds the quantitatively determined fluid to the main flow passage.

Abstract: A cartridge sealed from ambient air is used to send a liquid without causing the liquid to contact the fluid inside the cartridge. Inside of the cartridge 1 sealed from ambient air are provided chambers that send and receive reagents, and an elastic body membrane 51 is attached to the bottom surface. The cartridge main body 51 does not have a groove or anything else that becomes a channel, and the membrane 51 is not bonded to portions that become channels. A channel, not formed in a normal state, is formed upon deforming the membrane 51 under air pressure in the unbonded portion, and the fluid is moved inside. A valve function is provided at an inlet of each chamber, and the fluid is internally moved in any direction with channel deformation.

Abstract: A technique for performing spectral calibration simultaneously with electrophoresis of an actual sample to be analyzed, without performing electrophoresis using a special matrix standard which is time-consuming and costly, is provided. The device for genotypic analysis is characterized by obtaining reference fluorescence spectra using a size standard and an allelic ladder, which provide information concerning known DNA fragments used for electrophoresis of an actual sample, and is characterized by performing spectral calibration for a capillary in which the allelic ladder is not used by detecting a shift amount of the fluorescence spectra of the size standard and shifting the reference fluorescence spectra using the shift amount to determine fluorescence spectra.

Abstract: To allow fully automated implementation of all steps of from pre-processing up to electrophoresis. Provided is a pre-processing/electrophoresis integrated cartridge including one or more block structures corresponding to the individual steps of pre-processing. Each block structure includes (1) a first block having a reaction tank, a reagent tank, a plurality of flow channels that connect the tanks, a plurality of control valves arranged in the flow channels, and a flow channel that connects a reaction tank in a block structure located at a preceding stage and a reaction tank in a block structure located at a next stage, and (2) a second block having a phoretic solution tank, a cathode buffer solution tank, a wash solution tank, a flow channel that connects a carrier tank in the block structure located at the preceding stage and the phoretic solution tank, and a control valve for the flow channel.

Abstract: A cartridge sealed from an external air is used to enable mixing with a reagent, agitating, purification, reaction, etc. Provided inside the cartridge 1 sealed from the external air are a chamber 38 for the reagent to be transported, a chamber 39 to which the reagent is transported, and the chambers are connected by a liquid transport channel. A groove is made in a cartridge body 30 and a membrane 31 as an elastic body is pasted onto the groove to form the liquid transport channel 36. Air pressure is given to the membrane 31 to change the volume of the liquid transport channel 31 and thereby move the fluid inside. The inlet of each chamber has a valve function to move the fluid inside in a desired direction according to change of the liquid transport channel. This enables transportation of the liquid inside the cartridge sealed from the external air so that mixing with the reagent, agitating, purification, reaction, etc. can be performed in the cartridge.

Abstract: A chilled reagent container comprises a reagent vessel containing part for containing therein a plurality of reagent vessels, a container lid including a container lid hole through which the reagent vessels contained by the reagent vessel containing part are accessible, and a cooling block for cooling the reagent vessels contained by the reagent vessel containing part, wherein the container lid slides to be changeable between an opened situation wherein the reagent is accessible from an outside and a closed situation wherein the reagent is prevented from being accessed from the outside, wherein the chilled reagent container further comprises a reagent container packing including another hole through which the reagent vessels are accessible and arranged between the container lid and the reagent vessel containing part to be pressed against the container lid.

Abstract: In an apparatus for analyzing small number of samples, wasteful consumption of a polymer as a separation Medium is suppressed. The apparatus has a configuration provided with a plurality of capillary units each of which can be attached/detached to/from the apparatus, and performs analysis for capillaries after sealing of a polymer by attaching the capillaries by the number in accordance with the number of samples. Since analysis can be performed by using capillaries by the number identical with that of the samples to be analyzed, wasteful polymer is not used in the capillaries not used for the analysis. In addition, the polymer injection mechanism is unnecessary and the polymer is not necessary for maintenance and upon starting of analysis. An electrophoresis apparatus which is small in the size with no polymer injection mechanism, and with low running cost not wastefully consuming the polymer can be provided.

Abstract: The present invention relates to detection of an emission spectrum by irradiating excitation light onto a plurality of electrophoretic paths and dispersing fluorescent light output from the electrophoretic paths in a direction approximately vertical to an electrophoretic direction. According to the invention, since an emission spectrum to be detected does not substantially change over time, it becomes possible to make observed emission spectrums completely correspond to various fluorescent dyes or various bases.

Abstract: A chilled reagent container comprises a reagent vessel containing part for containing therein a plurality of reagent vessels, a container lid including a container lid hole through which the reagent vessels contained by the reagent vessel containing part are accessible, and a cooling block for cooling the reagent vessels contained by the reagent vessel containing part, wherein the container lid slides to be changeable between an opened situation wherein the reagent is accessible from an outside and a closed situation wherein the reagent is prevented from being accessed from the outside, wherein the chilled reagent container further comprises a reagent container packing including another hole through which the reagent vessels are accessible and arranged between the container lid and the reagent vessel containing part to be pressed against the container lid.

Abstract: There is provided a capillary electrophoresis apparatus wherein coupling efficiency of exciting irradiation light to a capillary array does not decline even if any one capillary array of two capillary arrays is removed. Light emission generated by capillaries of each capillary array of 2n (n is a positive integer) capillary arrays radiating exciting light from one side is detected by one optical detection system.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a capillary electrophoresis apparatus in which simultaneity can be ensured between sensitivity and data acquisition to decrease a pull-up signal while spectral data acquisition is eliminated in each capillary exchange. The invention relates to a capillary electrophoresis apparatus characterized in that a multi-bandpass filter is provided in an optical detection system. In one aspect of the invention, a signal detection area of a two-dimensional detector is divided into plural regions corresponding to wavelength transmission regions of the multi-bandpass filter. An integrated value of the fluorescence spectrum signal is determined in the region including a fluorescence spectrum peak of an analysis sample in the plural regions. The analysis is performed with the integrated value.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a capillary electrophoresis apparatus in which simultaneity can be ensured between sensitivity and data acquisition to decrease a pull-up signal while spectral data acquisition is eliminated in each capillary exchange. The invention relates to a capillary electrophoresis apparatus in which capillary position shift is detected in each capillary exchange by detecting a capillary position. A capillary position measuring light source is provided in the capillary electrophoresis apparatus of the invention. The capillary is irradiated with light emitted from the capillary position measuring light source, a capillary image is detected with a two-dimensional detector, and thereby a position deviation of the capillary is determined. On the basis of the position deviation of the capillary, a data acquisition area is set in the two-dimensional detector, or a reference fluorescent light spectrum determined from the capillary at the standard position is corrected.

Abstract: The object of the present invention is that a dynamic range is extended in an electrophoresis unit and concentration differences among a plurality of samples measured simultaneously are increased. An irradiation time to the samples is adjusted during analysis without changing a sampling time. By shortening the irradiation time, a fluorescence amount of the samples is reduced to cause signal intensity detected by a detector to physically decrease. If the irradiation time is very short (several 100 msec), the irradiation time and fluorescence intensity are in a direct proportional relationship. It is known that, if the irradiation time is reduced to 1/n, the fluorescence intensity, that is, signal intensity to be detected will be 1/n. Thus, for data whose irradiation time is reduced to 1/n during analysis, data obtained by multiplying a substantially measured value by n is used for data analysis as a true value to be originally acquired.

Abstract: The present invention provides a capillary electrophoresis apparatus in which a capillary is easily attached to and detached from a migration medium filling unit without mixing impurities into the capillary. Mixture of impurities such as dust is also prevented when a capillary negative-electrode end is brought into contact with a sample stored in a vessel. Furthermore, temperature control is efficiently performed in the capillary. In the capillary electrophoresis apparatus, the whole of capillary array can be supported by grasping a grip portion by hand. A migration medium filling mechanism includes a slide mechanism which moves a polymer block with respect to a capillary head. The capillary electrophoresis apparatus includes a vessel in which a sample and a buffer can simultaneously be stored. Temperatures of the capillary and an irradiation and detection unit are controlled by a temperature control function provided in a thermostatic device.

Abstract: Detection sensitivity is improved by increasing the amount of light of beams that irradiate a sample cell without causing saturation of a detector with ultraviolet beams or visible beams. This spectrophotometer includes a sample cell, which stores a sample to be measured, a visible light source and an ultraviolet light source each for supplying an incident beam that enters the sample, a spectroscope, which disperses a beam that has passed through the sample, an optical detector, which detects beams dispersed from such beam (spectrum), and a dichroic element which reflects or transmits ultraviolet beams from the ultraviolet light source and which transmits or reflects visible beams from the visible light source. Optics are configured such that ultraviolet beams and visible beams that have passed through or have been reflected by the dichroic element enter the sample cell.

Abstract: A capillary array capable of being easily mounted on an electrophoresis apparatus without damaging the capillaries. The capillary array can include a plurality of capillaries that can be fixed via hollow electrodes on a load header in a matrix arrangement. The load header can be disposed on the electrophoresis apparatus. The capillary array can include a capillary frame onto which a capillary head and a detection portion can be detachably mounted. The structure allows the load header, the capillary head, the detection unit and other portions of the capillary array to be handled as a unit, thereby making it easier to mount the capillary array on the electrophoresis apparatus.

Abstract: The invention aims to improve the spatial resolution in a multi-focus type electrophoresis apparatus that irradiates a capillary array from both ends thereof with laser beams. The invention relates to an electrophoresis apparatus in which capillaries at both ends of a capillary array are irradiated respectively with laser beams, and each of the two laser beams traverses multiple capillaries. In the electrophoresis apparatus, the laser beams are coaxially introduced into the capillary array from the both ends thereof to travel in a direction vertical to axis of each capillary and horizontal to the aligrnent plane of the capillary array; and a ?/4 plate and a polarizer are arranged on the laser beam optical axes. According to the invention, the total width of the incident laser beams is made narrow, generation of pseudo signals is prevented, and an analysis performance is improved.