Bio-Rad Laboratories of Hercules, Calif., has received US Patent No. 7,541,003, "Latex based adsorbent chip." The patent describes an adsorbent chip containing three components: a substrate, an intermediate layer of linker arms, and an adsorbent film, which is attached to the linker arms. The adsorbent film is made up of a number of adsorbent particles, each of which includes a binding functionality. The patent also provides a method of making the described chips in which the substrate-intermediate film cassette is formed and the adsorbent film is subsequently immobilized on it.
Agilent Technologies has received US Patent No. 7,541,144, "RNA labeling method." The patent claims a method of conducting sample analysis by: a) heating a sample of microRNAs to at least 80 degrees Celsius under conditions including at least 40 percent dimethyl sulfoxide; b) contacting the sample with RNA ligase in the presence of a labeled substrate to produce the coupling of the labeled substrate to the miRNAs in the sample; c) contacting the labeled miRNAs to an array of probes under conditions suitable for the labeled miRNA to hybridize to the described probes; and d) interrogating the array to provide quantitative data on the binding of the labeled miRNAs to the array.
Corning of Corning, NY, has received US Patent No. 7,541,146, "Biomolecule retaining material and methods for attaching biomolecules to a surface." The patent provides a method and material for attaching biomolecules onto the surface of a substrate, such as microwell plates, tubes, beads, microscope slides, silicon wafers, or membranes. The material includes a substrate that has a surface coating including a polyamine compound. The method and material can be used to immobilize nucleic acid probes onto plastic materials such as microwell plates, for use in hybridization assays, the patent's abstract states. More specifically, the material can be used to attach a biomolecule that can be used for specific binding reactions, for example, to hybridize a nucleic acid to its complementary strand.
Riken of Wako, Japan, has received US Patent No. 7,541,195, "Substrate for biomolecule microarray, biomolecule microarray, device and method of promoting interaction, and method of detecting interaction." The patent claims a substrate for a biomolecule microarray that includes one or more spots for immobilizing a biomolecule. The patent also claims a device for promoting interaction between biomolecules that includes the described biomolecule microarray, an electrode that faces the surface of the microarray, and a power source for applying an electric field between the microarray and the electrode. The patent also claims methods for promoting and detecting interaction between the biomolecules.
CombiMatrix of Mukilteo, Wash., has received US Patent No. 7,541,314, "Microarray having a base cleavable sulfonyl linker." The patent claims a microarray with a base of cleavable, sulfonyl-containing linkers, as well as a process to make the array. According to the patent's abstract, oligonucleotides of any sequence may be synthesized on the microarray with the cleavable linker. The oligonucleotides then may be cleaved and recovered as a pool of oligonucleotides having a three-prime phosphate moiety. According to the abstract, the microarray described is an electrode-containing microarray, and the oligonucleotides are electrochemically synthesized.
Health Discovery of Savannah, Ga., has received US Patent No. 7,542,947, ""Data mining platform for bioinformatics and other knowledge discovery." The patent describes a data-mining platform that includes a number of system modules. Each module has an input data component, a data-analysis engine for processing the input data, an output data component for outputting the results of the data analysis, and a web server to access and monitor the other modules within the unit and to provide communication to other units, the patent's abstract states. Each module processes a different type of data. For example, a first module may process microarray-generated gene-expression data, while a second module may process biomedical literature on the Internet for information supporting relationships between genes and diseases and gene functionality.