Applera of Norwalk, Conn., received US Patent No. 6,537,788, “Isolated human kinase proteins, nucleic acid molecules encoding human kinase proteins, and uses thereof.” The patent covers sequences of amino acids and provides a system to create microarrays from them.
Applera also received US Patent No. 6,537,780, “Isolated nucleic acid molecules encoding transferase enzymes.” The patent covers more amino acid sequences and provides a system to create microarrays from them.
Phylos of Lexington, Mass., received US Patent No. 6,537,749, “Addressable protein arrays.” The patent covers arrays of nucleic acid-protein fusions immobilized to a solid surface through capture probes that include a non-nucleosidic spacer group and an oligonucleotide sequence to which the fusion (such as an RNA-protein fusion) is bound. The patent also covers solid supports for the arrays and a system for their preparation and use.
The French Atomic Energy Commission and Biomerieux of Marcy l’Etoile, France, received US Patent No. 6,537,801, “Biochip and biochip reading device comprising a plurality of zones for molecular recognition.” The patent covers a system for reading a biochip, a light system for illuminating and positioning within the area of the chip. The device contains several recognition areas to target different molecules. Each recognition area contains only one type of molecule.
Affymetrix received US Patent No. 6,532,462, “Gene expression and evaluation system using a filter table with a gene expression database.” A filter table provides a framework for queries to access a gene expression database. The filter table is used to filter expression levels and return a reduced set, which may be further queried to provide more specific results. Using the filtering and querying provided, one can easily identify genes or expressed sequence tags whose expression correlates to particular tissue types.