A new US Patent has issued for Illumina scientific founder David Walt’s microsphere-based analyte detection platform. The patent, Number 6,327,410, is entitled “Target analyte sensors utilizing microspheres,” and is assigned to Tufts University, where Walt has his research lab. The patent covers a method in which microspheres that carry bioactive agents are dispersed onto a substrate then target analytes are detected for these agents using an optical signature encoding scheme.