Patent ID: 6290831
Filing Date: 2001-09-18
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
An electrophoretic system for real time analysis of a plurality of samples each containing at least one biopolymer, the system comprising:(a) a holder for holding a plurality of removable gel cassettes, said holder supporting a plurality of electrode pairs electrically connectable to an external power source;(b) said plurality of removable gel cassettes each having an open top end and a bottom end and being designed for containing a gel slab therein, wherein each pair of said plurality of electrode pairs serves for creating a voltage gradient in a single gel slab, for effecting electrophoretic separation of the at least one biopolymer of each of the plurality of samples; and(c) a plurality of detector assemblies, each including a plurality of detection units, each of said plurality of detector assemblies being intimately positionable at a region of one of said plurality of removable gel cassettes corresponding to a portion of said gel slab, each of said plurality of detector assemblies being for collecting information pertaining to at least one property of at least one biopolymer from said portion of said gel slab, whereas each of said plurality of detection units of a single detector assembly of said plurality of detector assemblies serves for collecting information pertaining to at least one property of at least one biopolymer in a subregion of said portion of said gel slab;wherein at least one of said plurality of detector assemblies is an optical detector assembly adapted for collecting light radiation transmitted through, reflected, scattered or emitted from said region of said one of said plurality of removable gel cassettes;said optical detector assembly includes a light source for illuminating said region of one of said plurality of removable gel cassettes, and an optical detector for collecting light from said region of said region of said at least one of said plurality of removable gel cassettes; andsaid optical detector further includes at least one deflector adapted for deflecting light collected from said region of said at least one of said plurality of removable gel cassettes onto said optical detector.