Schott of Mainz, Germany, has received US Patent No. 7,566,672, "Glass composition exclusively consisting of oxides which already at low temperatures form volatile fluorides by reaction with fluorine and its use." The claimed glass is advantageous for microstructuring, especially reactive ion etching with fluorine and fluorine compounds, and has a glass composition based on oxide content, according to the patent. Microstructure components, such as microarrays, fresnel lenses, microwafers, or micro lens wafers, made by a method including reactive ion etching from the glass are also claimed.
Boston Probes of Bedford, Mass., has received US Patent No. 7,566,420, "Methods, kits and compositions pertaining to combination oligomers and libraries for their preparation." The patent claims a kit that includes independently detectable combination oligomers, oligonucleotides, buffers, nucleotide triphosphates, a nucleic acid amplification master mix, and polymerase enzymes.
Intelligent Medical Devices of Cambridge, Mass., has received US Patent No. 7,566,533, "Clinically intelligent diagnostic devices and methods." The patent describes the "clinically intelligent design" of diagnostic devices such as microarrays and methods ways of making and using the devices in differential diagnoses of specific clinical symptoms or sets of symptoms. The described devices include various probes used to perform parallel screening of a number of analytes. According to the patent, the probes are clustered on the devices based on known clinical presentations of symptoms associated with specific diseases and disorders.