Portable thawer components and features

Inventors

McPherson, Thomas • Schryver, Brian • Comiso, Scott

Assignees

Broadoak Fund Iii • Broadoak Fund Iii LLC • Biolife Solutions Inc

Abstract

The present disclosure is related to sample thawing. Features described herein may limit power requirements of the thawing device and may thereby increase the portability of the thawing device. The device may include a housing; a heater block housed within the housing and forming a vial receptacle; a thermally-conductive compliant material may line an inner surface of the receptacle; and a heating element may be coupled with the heater block. The thermally-conductive compliant material may be molded to a shape of a bottom portion of the vial so as to fittingly mate with the bottom portion of the vial. In some embodiments, the heater block does not have moveable components and may be a single non-segmented piece. An ejection pin may be provided configured to break contact between the vial and the thermally-conductive compliant material. Additionally, the receptacle may be localized to the vial region adjacent to the frozen sample.

Core Innovation

The invention relates to a sample thawing device for thawing a frozen sample in a vial. The device includes a housing and a heater block housed within the housing that forms a vial receptacle. A heating element is thermally coupled with the heater block and is configured to heat the heater block to thaw the frozen sample in the vial.

The sample thawing device includes a thermally-conductive compliant material lining the inner surface of the vial receptacle formed by the heater block. The thermally-conductive compliant material is molded to a shape of a bottom portion of the vial so as to fittingly mate with the bottom portion of the vial, and is configured to provide thermal coupling with the vial bottom during thawing.

In additional embodiments, the heater block does not have moveable components, including configurations with a single non-segmented piece. The device can also include an ejection pin configured to break contact between the vial and the thermally-conductive compliant material by extending through an opening of the vial receptacle to eject the vial.

Claims Coverage

The independent claims cover four main inventive aspects of a sample thawing device for thawing a frozen sample in a vial, using a heater-block vial receptacle with a thermally-conductive compliant lining, optionally constrained to non-movable heater-block structure, with optional ejection pin separation and optional partial vial insertion via a shallow receptacle height.

Across the independent claims, the core coverage requires a housing with a heater block forming a vial receptacle, a thermally-conductive compliant lining molded to fit the vial bottom, and a heating element thermally coupled to the heater block to thaw the frozen sample. Dependent structures further include the absence of moveable components in the heater block, an optional ejection pin to break contact and eject the vial, and an optional shallow receptacle configuration where less than half the vial is disposed within the receptacle.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications