Patent ID: 8765476

Claim:
A method of combining reagent in an automated sample processing system comprising the steps of: dispensing a liquid biological sample processing substance into a mixing vial with at least one probe of an automated sample processing system; dispensing at least one additional biological sample processing substance into said mixing vial containing said liquid biological sample processing substance with said at least one probe of said automated sample processing system to create a mixture of at least two biological sample processing substances in said mixing vial; contacting at least part of said at least one probe with said mixture of said at least two biological sample processing substances in said mixing vial; aspirating at least a portion of said mixture of said at least two biological sample processing substances from said mixing vial with said at least one probe contacted with said mixture; forcefully dispensing said aspirated portion of said mixture of at least two biological sample processing substances back into said mixing vial with said at least one probe so as to provide automatic vertically forced fluidic turbulent mixing of said mixture of at least two biological sample processing substances in said mixing vial to create a uniform suspension of said mixture of at least two biological sample processing substances; and automatically applying at least a portion of said uniform suspension to a biological sample on a slide with said at least one probe.