Patent ID: 7160717

Claim:
An assembly for promoting growth of tissue samples requiring light to support proliferation, said assembly comprising: a plurality of plates, each of the plates defining therein a plurality of wells arranged in a well array, each of the plurality of wells configured to support and isolate one of the tissue samples; a rack including a plurality of supports spaced from each other and configured to support at least one of the plates; a plurality of light-emitting diode arrays supported by the rack and cooperating respectively with the supports so that light from the light-emitting diode array shines into the wells of the plate and promotes growth of the tissue samples contained therein; and a robotic system configured to automatically load the tissue samples into each of the plurality of wells in the plurality of plates and to position each of the plurality of plates on one of the plurality of supports opposite one of the plurality of light-emitting diode arrays and to remove each of the plurality of well plates from one of the plurality of supports for additional downstream processing.