Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for biochemical reactions, and more particularly to an apparatus which permits adequate agitation of solutions that undergo biochemical reactions.
Following description is made with reference to an apparatus for immunological reactions by which the present invention can be most appropriately practised. In the immunological reactions, either the antigen or the antibody is marked with a convenient label (for example, a fluorescent or radioactive material or an enzyme) and the immunological reaction is utilized to form a complex body of the antigen and the antibody. The antibody having the label in it gives a measure to estimate the amount of the object antigen or antibody.
For the reaction to proceed adequately, to increase the accuracy and precision of estimation, to carry out the process more rapidly, and to enhance the efficiency of operations, the procedure of stirring is preferable as it is in most chemical reactions.
However, in biochemical reactions such as immunological reaction where a small volume of sample, say from several hundreds microliters to several tens milliliters, is commonly employed, difficulties are often met in agitating the solution. A stirrer with blades cannot be used practically and, if the stirring means is brought into contact with the solution, the the estimation may bring about loss in accuracy probably due to "carry over". Stirring by oscillating the vessel itself cannot be expected to be effective and loss of the solution by spattering is feared. Stirring by ultrasonic waves as non-contact stirring may cause the reacting substances to be destroyed and therefore is not universally applicable.