Patent ID: 8791429

Claim:
An interrogatory method of high throughput microscopic analysis of cancerous cells performed on an automated microscope, the method comprising: transporting one or more microscope slides motorizedly to a microscopic stage, said one or more slides comprise a biological sample and electronically-interrogatable data pertaining to detectably labelled biological structures of said biological sample; reading said electronically-interrogatable data from said biological sample on said one or more microscope slides, wherein said one or more microscope slides comprise said biological sample consisting of an isolated cell population or tissue sample and said electronically-interrogatable data pertaining to said cell or tissue sample; determining from said electronically-interrogatable data for of the detectably labelled biological structures information on how said biological sample is to be analyzed, wherein the detectably labeled biological structures comprise particular distinguishably fluorescent labels of different excitation and emission wavelengths recordable under a plurality of different excitation filters or a plurality of different laser sources; and analyzing said biological sample situated on said one or more slides using said information determined from said electronically-interrogatable data; and reading and reporting said analyzed data of said detectably labeled biological structures wherein said cell or tissue origin and state is identified and located in situ; wherein said biological structures of cancer cells are identified by tagging with detectably distinguishable FISH signals directed to DAPI, chromosomal aneuploidy probes, and a second probe to sequence specific for chromosome 3, third probe to sequence specific for chromosome 7, fourth probe to sequence specific for chromosome 9, and fifth probe to sequence specific for chromosome 17.