Patent ID: 7435383

Claim:
An apparatus for staining specimens carried on a plurality of slides, comprising: a tray configured to hold the plurality of slides; a rack configured to hold a plurality of reagent containers, each of said containers holding a volume of a reagent; a robotic delivery system including a selectively movable probe configured to withdraw reagent volumes from selected reagent containers and deposit the reagent volumes on selected slides according to a predetermined staining protocol; and a control system operatively coupled to said robotic delivery system for controlling said probe; and a chassis having a processing space and a first drawer supporting said tray, said first drawer having a first position in which said tray is positioned in said processing space for staining specimens on the slides and a second position in which said tray is positioned outside of said processing space for accessing the slides in said tray, wherein the first drawer supports the tray of slides during the entire staining protocol occurring in the processing space, including both the insertion of the tray of slides into the processing space at the start of the staining protocol and the removal of the tray of slides from the processing space at the end of the staining protocol.