ROBOT SYSTEM FOR PREPARING LYMPHOCYTE CHROMOSOME

Towards the automatization of the scoring of chromosome aberrations in radiation dosimetry with the emphasis on the improvement of biological preparations, the conventional culture and harvesting method was modified. Based on this modified method, a culture and harvest robotic system (CHROSY) for preparing lymphocyte chromosome was developed. The targeted points of the modification are as in the following. 1. Starting culture with purified lymphocytes in a fixed cell number. 2. Avoiding the loss of cells in changing the liquids following centrifugalization. 3. Keeping the quantity of the liquids to be applied to the treatments of cells fixed. 4. Building a system even a beginner can handle. System features are as follows. 1. Operation system: Handling robot having 5 degrees of freedom; a rotator incubator with an automatic sliding door; units for setting and removing pipette tips; a centrifuge equipped with a position adjuster and an automatic sliding door; two aluminum block baths; two nozzles as pipettes and aspirators connected to air pumps; a capping unit with a nozzle for CO2 gas; a compressor; and an air manipulated syringe. 2. Control system: NEC PC-9801RX21 with CRT; and program written in Basic and Assembly languages on MS-DOS. It took this system 2 hours and 25 minutes to harvest 2 cultures. A fairly good chromosome slide was made from the sample harvested by CHROSY automatically.