Multi-well microtiter plate

A system and method for the high volume processing of a plurality of minute liquid specimens uses a multi-well microtiter tray (12) which has a base (14) with a flat underside and a plurality of wells (18) that are formed on the base. As intended for the present invention there are eight hundred and sixty four wells formed on the base (14). Also, included in the system is a structure which has a heat transfer plate (34) for supporting the microtiter tray (12), and for effecting heat transfer with the liquid specimens in the wells (18) of the tray (12). In one embodiment, the plate itself functions as a heat source. Alternatively, the plate functions as a heat sink and a heating element mounted on the structure is employed to heat the liquid specimens which are held in the wells of the tray. For this alternative embodiment, operation of the plate can be controlled in concert with the operation of the heating element. By controlling the operations of the plate and the heating element, the system of the present invention can cyclically vary the heating of the liquid specimens for procedures such as DNA amplification. The base of the tray, and the bottoms of the wells in the base of the tray, are light transparent to selectively allow simultaneous photometric or fluorometric measurements of all liquid specimens being held on the microtiter tray.