The Industrial Technology Research Institute of Hsinchu, Taiwan, has received US Patent No. 7,150,856, “On-spot selectively activated hydrophobic slide and preparation thereof.” The patent describes methods for creating a selectively activated hydrophobic microarray slide. The methods call for the preparation of a hydrophobic copolymer by blending, grafting, or co-polymerizing a hydrophobic material and a compound bearing a functional group, such as imide or cyclic amide, protected by a protecting group, such as a tosyloxy. The hydrophobic copolymer is then coated on a substrate and subjected to selective photolithographical activation so that the slide will have functional active copolymer spots separated by inactive copolymers. The resulting slide is suitable for the preparation of high-density and high-efficiency arrays, the patent’s abstract states.
Riken of Wako, Japan, and Fuence of Tokyo have received US Patent No. 7,150,859, “Microarray fabricating device.” The patent claims a device for fabricating a high-density microarray for cDNA or protein. According to the patent’s abstract, the device consists of: 1) an electrospray tool for electrostatically spraying solutions containing samples one by one on to the array; 2) a support for holding sample chips while solutions are deposited by the electrospray tool; 3) a masking tool that can deposit the samples onto the array; and 4) a tool for fabricating several microarrays at a time by utilizing the sample chip support and the masking tool to deposit the samples on the sample chips.