Patent ID: 7250301

Claim:
A method of treating a biological sample on a microscope slide for in situ antigen recovery and staining, comprising: (a) providing a plurality of slide support elements and providing a plurality of microscope slides, each having a treatment sample disposed thereon; (b) disposing each microscope slide on a separate slide support element of the plurality of slide support elements, wherein each slide support element is independently movable; (c) providing a plurality of reagent dispensing devices, each reagent dispensing device comprising one or more individually contained reagents for treating one of said microscope slides, wherein each reagent dispensing device corresponds only to a single microscope slide; (d) applying a first reagent from the reagent dispensing device or from a separate reagent dispensing element to each corresponding microscope slide and heating each corresponding microscope slide within an individually enclosable reaction compartment; (e) controlling pressure within the reaction compartment during the heating of the corresponding microscope slide having the first reagent disposed thereon; (f) removing the first reagent from each corresponding microscope slide thereby treated; (g) treating each corresponding microscope slide by applying thereto a second reagent from the reagent dispensing device or from the separate reagent dispensing element and optionally heating the second reagent; and (h) removing the second reagent from each corresponding microscope slide and wherein at least one of the first reagent and the second reagent is provided from the reagent dispensing device.