US-12625038-B2 - Tissue sample coring system

Abstract

The present technology generally relates to a tissue sample coring system. Select embodiments of a tissue sample core extractor include a drill head, a drill bit, a tube, and a pump. The drill bit may have a hollow coring head configured to separate a core from a tissue sample and retain the core therein. The drill bit may include a central passageway fluidly coupling the hollow coring head to a port extending radially from the central passageway through the drill bit, where the tube is aligned with the port and movable to selectively abut the drill bit to create a fluid seal between the tube and the port such that the pump can cause a fluid to flow through the tube, pressurize the central passageway, and eject the core. The tissue sample core extractor may further include a trigger configured to move the tube and/or cycle the pump.

Inventors

• Karol Bomsztyk
• Stephen Scheuerman

Assignees

• UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20191024

Claims (18)

1. 1 . A tissue sample core extractor, comprising: a drill head configured to be rotated by a motor; a drill bit removably couplable to the drill head and having a hollow coring head configured to separate a core from a tissue sample and retain the core therein, the drill bit having a central passageway fluidly coupling the hollow coring head to a first port extending radially from the central passageway through the drill bit; a tube positioned radially outward from the drill bit and aligned with the first port, wherein the tube is movable to selectively abut the drill bit to create a fluid seal between the tube and the first port; a pump fluidly coupled to the tube to cause a fluid to flow through the tube and pressurize the central passageway to eject the core; and a trigger protruding from an outer body and movable to depress an actuator configured to cycle the pump and cause the fluid to flow through the tube, wherein the trigger is movable through (a) a first stage defined by a movement of the trigger causing the tube to abut the drill bit and create the fluid seal between the tube and the first port, and (b) a second stage defined by a movement of the trigger causing the actuator to cycle the pump.
2. 2 . The tissue sample core extractor of claim 1 , wherein the outer body is positioned at least partially around the drill head, the drill bit, the tube, and the pump, wherein the outer body includes a handle configured to be grasped by a hand of a user.
3. 3 . The tissue sample core extractor of claim 1 wherein: the trigger further comprises a first pin configured to travel in a first slot and a second pin configured to travel in a second slot, the first slot has a linear portion corresponding to the first stage of the trigger and an arcuate portion corresponding to the second stage of the trigger, and the second slot is linear.
4. 4 . The tissue sample core extractor of claim 1 wherein: movement of the trigger through the first stage pulls a cable coupling the trigger to a first jaw carrying an end of the tube adjacent to the drill bit, and movement of the trigger through the second stage elongates a spring positioned between the trigger and the first jaw, such that the movement of the trigger through the second stage does not cause further movement of the first jaw.
5. 5 . The tissue sample core extractor of claim 3 , further comprising a blind duct positioned diametrically opposed to the tube and carried by a second jaw, wherein movement of the trigger through the first stage causes the first jaw and the second jaw to move toward the drill bit and create a fluid seal around the drill bit such that the first port for a second port extending radially from the central passageway through the drill bit opposite the first port of the drill bit is in fluid communication with the tube at any rotational position of the drill bit.
6. 6 . The tissue sample core extractor of claim 1 wherein the drill bit further comprises a second port extending radially from the central passageway through the drill bit opposite the first port.
7. 7 . The tissue sample core extractor of claim 1 , further comprising a chamber fluidly coupled to the pump, a fluid container, and the tube, the chamber configured to retain a portion of the fluid from the fluid container and pressurize by cycling of the pump.
8. 8 . The tissue sample core extractor of claim 1 wherein the drill bit has a shoulder positioned near the coring head and configured to prevent the coring head from entering the tissue sample further than depth of the shoulder.
9. 9 . A device for extracting a tissue sample core, comprising: an outer body; a drill head positioned within the outer body and rotatable by a motor; a drill bit extending from the outer body and removably couplable to the drill head, the drill bit having a hollow coring head configured to separate a core from a tissue sample and retain the core therein, the drill bit having a central passageway fluidly coupling the hollow coring head to a first port extending radially from the central passageway through the drill bit; a tube having an end positioned radially outward from the drill bit and aligned with the first port, wherein the tube is movable by a trigger slidably associated with the outer body from (a) a first position at which the end of the tube is spaced apart from the drill bit, to (b) a second position at which the end of the tube abuts the drill bit to create a fluid seal between the tube and the first port; and a pump fluidly coupled to the tube to cause a fluid to flow through the tube in the second position and pressurize the central passageway to eject the core.
10. 10 . The device of claim 9 wherein the trigger is rotatably associated with the outer body from the second position to a third position, and wherein rotation of the trigger to the third position depresses an actuator configured to cycle the pump and cause the fluid to flow through the tube.
11. 11 . The device of claim 9 wherein the trigger comprises a first stage and a second stage, the first stage defined by sliding movement of the trigger causing the end of the tube to abut the drill bit and create the fluid seal between the tube and the first port, and wherein the second stage is defined by rotational movement of the trigger causing the actuator to cycle the pump.
12. 12 . The device of claim 11 wherein: the trigger further comprises a first pin configured to travel in a first slot of the outer body and a second pin configured to travel in a second slot of the outer body, the first slot has a linear portion corresponding to the first stage of the trigger and an arcuate portion corresponding to the second stage of the trigger, and the second slot is linear.
13. 13 . The device of claim 11 wherein: movement of the trigger through the first stage pulls a cable that couples the trigger to a first jaw carrying the end of the tube, and movement of the trigger through the second stage elongates a spring positioned between the trigger and the first jaw, such that the movement of the trigger through the second stage does not cause further movement of the first jaw.
14. 14 . The device of claim 13 , further comprising a blind duct positioned diametrically opposed to the tube and carried by a second jaw, wherein the movement of the trigger through the first stage causes the first jaw and the second jaw to move toward the drill bit and create a fluid seal around the drill bit such that the first port or a second port extending radially from the central passageway through the drill bit opposite the first port of the drill bit is in fluid communication with the tube at any rotational position of the drill bit.
15. 15 . The device of claim 9 wherein the drill bit further comprises a second port extending radially from the central passageway through the drill bit opposite the first port.
16. 16 . The device of claim 9 wherein the fluid is a buffered liquid or a compressed gas.
17. 17 . The device of claim 9 , further comprising: a fluid container having a plunger to supply the fluid to the tube; and/or a barcode reader configured to receive identifying information related to the tissue sample.
18. 18 . The device of claim 9 , further comprising a chamber fluidly coupled to the pump, a fluid container having a plunger to supply the fluid to the tube, and the tube, the chamber configured to retain a portion of the fluid from the fluid container and pressurize by cycling of the pump.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) The present application is a National Phase of International Patent Application No. PCT/US19/57835, titled “TISSUE SAMPLE CORING SYSTEM,” filed Oct. 24, 2019. which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/751,187, titled “TISSUE CORING MULTISAMPLER DEVICE,” filed Oct. 26, 2018, the disclosure of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. STATEMENT OF FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT This invention was made with government support under Grant Nos. ROL DK103849 and R21 GM111439 and R33 CA191135 and R42 HG01085S and R44 GM122097 awarded by the National Institutes of Health. The government has certain rights in the invention. TECHNICAL FIELD The present technology generally relates to systems and methods for obtaining tissue samples by coring cryogenic tissues. BACKGROUND Histological and molecular intra-tissue heterogeneity is present in virtually every disease, including cancer and organ injury. This heterogeneity is thought to account for many therapeutic failures (particularly in cancer), and is shifting the paradigm that multiple, as opposed to single, biopsies are needed to optimize personalized medical care. There are powerful high throughput pre-analytical sample preparation and analytical platforms to study intracellular processes and their alterations in tissues, including molecular intratissue heterogeneity in cancer and organ injury. Freezing or paraffin embedding of formalin fixed tissues (FFPE) is a common way to preserve and store samples for analysis (e.g. surgical specimens for pathologist evaluation). Advances in high throughput (HT) sample preparation and analytical technologies are providing opportunities to study intra-tissue heterogeneity, leading to discoveries of disease biomarkers. Such HT platforms that analyze multiple sections within a tissue have not been fully utilized due to relatively slow and tedious sampling of frozen and FFPE tissues, currently obtained by using a scalpel, microtome, laser capture microdissection, or by crushing frozen samples with hammer-like tools. Tissue biopsies are among the most common medical procedures used to establish diagnosis. Historically, tissue biopsies were primarily used for histology. More recently, with increasing understanding of molecular basis of disease, tissue samples are being used in personalized medicine where treatments are based on discoveries of molecular biomarkers. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Many aspects of the present technology can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. Instead, emphasis is placed on illustrating clearly the principles of the present technology. Furthermore, components can be shown as transparent in certain views for clarity of illustration only and not to indicate that the component is necessarily transparent. Components may also be shown schematically. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a tissue sample coring device configured in accordance with an embodiment of the present technology. FIG. 2 is a right side elevation view of the tissue sample coring device of FIG. 1. FIG. 3A is an enlarged detail view of the trigger area of the tissue sample coring device of FIG. 1, taken at the boundary shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 3B is an enlarged detail view of the trigger slots of the tissue sample coring device of FIG. 1, taken at the boundary shown in FIG. 3A with the trigger body hidden. FIG. 4 is an enlarged detail view of the drill bit of the tissue sample coring device of FIG. 1. DETAILED DESCRIPTION A. Overview The present technology is directed to a tissue sample coring system having a tissue sample core extractor. The tissue sample coring device is configured to remove a substantially cylindrical portion of a tissue sample (a “core”) from a cryogenically frozen block of fresh tissue for molecular and/or histology testing, among other uses. Under certain testing protocols, it is necessary to maintain the cores in a frozen state to preserve the normal and/or diseased cells, preventing the cells from changing state during preparation, transportation, and/or storage of the samples. To obtain a core, a motor of the tissue sample core extractor (“coring tool”) is energized to rotate a miniature coring drill bit configured to separate the core from the frozen tissue block in a cryogenic container. The coring drill bit can have any suitable diameter and may include a shoulder configured to provide a physical obstruction for the coring drill bit at a desired depth into the block. The rotating coring drill bit is driven into the frozen tissue at a desired depth and/or until the tissue reaches the shoulder, filling the bore of the coring drill bit with the frozen tissue core. The coring drill bit is removed from the block to extract the core and the motor is stopped. After the coring drill bit is removed from the tissue block, a dual-stage