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Compact, Automated Centrifugal Slide-Staining SystemThe Directional Acceleration Vector-Driven Displacement of Fluids (DAVD-DOF) system, under development at the time of reporting the information for this article, would be a relatively compact, automated, centrifugally actuated system for staining blood smears and other microbiological samples on glass microscope slides in either a microgravitational or a normal Earth gravitational environment. The DAVD-DOF concept is a successor to the centrifuge-operated slide stainer (COSS) concept, which was reported in Slide-Staining System for Microgravity or Gravity (MSC-22949), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 25, No. 1 (January, 2001), page 64. The COSS includes reservoirs and a staining chamber that contains a microscope slide to which a biological sample is affixed. The staining chamber is sequentially filled with and drained of staining and related liquids from the reservoirs by use of a weighted plunger to force liquid from one reservoir to another at a constant level of hypergravity maintained in a standard swing-bucket centrifuge. In the DAVD-DOF system, a staining chamber containing a sample would also be sequentially filled and emptied, but with important differences. Instead of a simple microscope slide, one would use a special microscope slide on which would be fabricated a network of very small reservoirs and narrow channels connected to a staining chamber (see figure). Unlike in the COSS, displacement of liquid would be effected by use of the weight of the liquid itself, rather than the weight of a plunger.
Document ID
20110016830
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Other - NASA Tech Brief
Authors
Feeback, Daniel L.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Clarke, Mark S. F.
(University Space Research Association Houston, TX, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
June 1, 2004
Publication Information
Publication: NASA Tech Briefs, June 2004
Subject Category
Man/System Technology And Life Support
Report/Patent Number
MSC-23179
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
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