Patent 6855553 was granted and assigned to 3M on February, 2005 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Apparatus, methods, and systems for processing sample materials that may be presented in a standard microtiter plate are disclosed. The present invention provides a bridge between the standard microtiter plate systems, methods, protocols, etc. with their stationary wells and rotating sample processing devices that allow users to obtain the rapid processing advantages of the newer sample processing devices while retaining the benefits of the standard microtiter plate formats.