Patent ID: 8383039

Claim:
A self-contained, biological assay apparatus, comprising: a housing; a dispensing platform including a controllably-movable reagent dispensing system, disposed in the housing; a reagent supply component disposed in the housing; a pneumatic manifold removeably disposed in the housing in a space shared by the dispensing platform, removeably coupled to a fluidic transport layer and a plurality of reservoirs, wherein the fluidic transport layer, the reservoirs, and a test sample to be introduced therein are disposed in the housing in the space separate from the dispensing platform; a pneumatic supply system removeably coupled to the pneumatic manifold in the housing in a space separate from the dispensing platform; and a control system coupled to at least one of the dispensing platform and the pneumatic supply system, disposed in the housing, wherein the apparatus is characterized as a self-contained, fully automated biological assay-performing apparatus.