Patent ID: 6893879

Claim:
A method for extracting an analyte from a fluid sample, the method comprising the steps of: a) introducing the sample into a cartridge having: i) a lysing chamber for lysing sample components to release the analyte therefrom, wherein the lysing chamber contains at least one filter for capturing the sample components by size exclusion as the sample flows through the lysing chamber; ii) an analyte capture region containing capture material for capturing the analyte; and iii) a reaction chamber; b) forcing the sample to flow through the lysing chamber to capture the sample components with the filter, wherein the volume of sample forced flow through the lysing chamber is greater than the volume capacity of the lysing chamber; c) lysing the sample components in the lysing chamber to produce a lysate containing the analyte; d) forcing the lysate to flow through the capture region, thereby capturing the analyte with the capture material; e) eluting the analyte from the capture region; f) forcing the eluted analyte to flow into the reaction chamber: g) reacting the analyte in the reaction chamber; and h) detecting a reaction product; wherein the reaction requires temperature control of the reaction chamber, the portion of the cartridge defining the reaction chamber protrudes from the rest of the cartridge body, and the method further comprises the steps of inserting the reaction chamber into a thermal sleeve and heating or cooling the reaction chamber according to a time/temperature profile.