TEMPERATURE CONTROL UNIT AND NUCLEIC ACID ANALYZER USING THE SAME

• Main Authors: KIKUCHI YUKI, IRIE TAKASHI, SHOJI YASUNORI
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: 11.12.2014
• Subjects: APPARATUS FOR ENZYMOLOGY OR MICROBIOLOGY; BEER; BIOCHEMISTRY; CHEMISTRY; ENZYMOLOGY; INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; MEASURING; METALLURGY; MICROBIOLOGY; MUTATION OR GENETIC ENGINEERING; PHYSICS; SPIRITS; TESTING; VINEGAR; WINE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a temperature control unit that speeds up a temperature change and simplifies an optical system for fluorescence detection.SOLUTION: A temperature conditioning element adjacent to the side face of a holding member for holding a lamellar reaction vessel is disposed so that a heating cooling surface becomes perpendicular to a holding member principal plane of a lamellar reaction vessel storage unit. Also, windows are provided in a bottom face of the holding member and a secondary plane, and excitation light irradiation and fluorescence detection are performed from two directions. The lamellar reaction vessel can be sandwiched by the holding member having a heating area above a certain level, by using a temperature control unit of the present invention, and heat is quickly transferred on the entire surface of a principal plane of the lamellar reaction vessel in a common Peltier element, and thereby the speeding up of the temperature change can be achieved. Furthermore, the bottom face and the secondary plane of the lamellar reaction vessel not related to heat conduction are used for the exciting light irradiation and fluorescence detection, and thereby high sensitive fluorescence detection can be implemented by a simple optical system, while maintaining the speeding up of the temperature change. 【課題】温度変化の高速化を実現すると共に、蛍光検出のための光学系を簡素化する温度調整ユニットを提供する。【解決手段】薄板状反応容器を保持する保持部材の側面に隣接する温調素子を、その加熱冷却面と薄板状反応容器格納部の保持部材主平面が垂直になるように配置する。また、保持部材の底面と副平面に窓を設け、励起光照射及び蛍光検出を2方向から行う。本発明の温度調整ユニットを用いることで、一定以上の伝熱面積を有する保持部材で薄板状反応容器を挟み込むことができ、一般的なペルチェ素子で薄板状反応容器の主平面全面に迅速に熱が伝わり、温度変化の高速化が図れる。さらに熱伝導に関係しない薄板状反応容器の底面、副平面を励起光照射、蛍光検出に用いることで、温度変化の高速化を維持しつつ、簡素な光学系で高感度な蛍光検出が実現できる。【選択図】図１