AUTOMATED CHROMOSOME ANALYSIS

THE LONG-TERM OBJECTIVE IS TO DEVELOP A PREPRODUCTION PROTOTYPE OF THE EXTENDED METACHROME HAVING CAPABILITIES FOR: (1) AUTOMATING THE KARYOTYPING OF HYBRID CELLS, OF FLUORESCENCE-STAINED CHROMOSOMES, AND OF PROMETAPHASE BANDING PATTERNS; (2) AUTOMATING ANALYSIS OF FLUORESCENCE-STAINED INTERFACE CELLS, AND OF AUTORADIOGRAPHSOF PREVIOUSLY SCANNED METAPHASES; AND (3) INCLUDING ADDITIONAL HARDWARE FEATURES INVOLVING SIMULTANEOUS IMAGING AT HIGH-AND LOW-POWER OBJECTIVES, LARGE-SCALE IMAGE STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL, AND AN AUTOMATIC, GLASS SLIDE-STACK LOADER. SUCH AN EXTENDED METACHROME INSTRUMENT CAN GREATLY EXPAND THE APPLICABILITY OF AUTOMATION TO CLINICAL GENETIC COUNSELING, TO GENETIC RESEARCH, AND TO DEVELOPMENTS IN GENETIC ENGINEERING. THE CURRENT METACHROME INSTRUMENT CAN INCREASE THE PATIENT LOAD OF A TECHNICIAN BY A FACTOR OF 5 TO 10, THUS MAKING CONVENTIONAL CHROMOSOME ANALYSIS MORE WIDELY AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC; THE EXTENDED METACHROME PROMISES TO MAKE FEASIBLE CLINICAL APPLICATIONS OF ADVANCED GENETIC RESEARCH RESULTS. THE PRESENT PHASE I PROPOSAL IS TO DEVELOP THE ENGINEERING DATA AND HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE DESIGN LEADING TO THE FABRICATION OF THE EXTENDED METACHROME. COMMERCIAL APPLICATION OF THE FINAL INSTRUMENT SHOULD BE WIDESPREAD IN GENETIC COUNSELING LABORATORIES AND IN GENETIC ENGINEERING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT COMPANIES. IN ADDITION, THE EXTENDED METACHROME MAKES FEASIBLE FOR THE FIRST TIME LARGE-SCALE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENTS, AND CLINICAL APPLICATIONS WHICH HERETO-FORE WOULD HAVE BEEN TOO TEDIOUS OR EXPENSIVE TO PERFORM.