Patent ID: 8765453

Claim:
A system for automatic staining of one or more biological samples, the system comprising: an auto-staining instrument, wherein the auto-staining instrument is configured to receive one or more sample processing receptacles and comprises fluidic ports and a reader, the reader being configured to obtain an identification of at least one pre-loaded reagent from the one or more sample processing receptacles when the one or more sample processing receptacles are received within the auto-staining instrument; the one or more sample processing receptacles, wherein each of the one or more sample processing receptacles includes fluid valves, the at least one pre-loaded reagent, and a sealable chamber for sheathing the one or more biological samples to be stained; reservoirs containing staining procedure fluids coupled to the auto-staining instrument via the fluidic ports of the auto-staining instrument, wherein the fluidic ports are further coupled to the fluidic valves of each of the one or more sample processing receptacles to provide the staining procedure fluids from the reservoirs to the chamber of each of the one or more sample processing reservoirs; a processor coupled to the auto-staining instrument; a memory coupled to the processor, the memory encoded with instructions that when executed by the processor comprise the steps of: accessing a plurality of sample processing procedures; determining one or more sample processing procedures from the plurality of sample processing procedures appropriate for the one or more sample processing receptacles based on the identification of the at least one pre-loaded reagent from the one or more sample processing receptacles, and commanding staining of the one or more biological samples within the one or more sample processing receptacles.