Empire Technology Development of Yueqing, China, has received US Patent No. 8,404,078, "Adhesion method, and biochemical chip and optical component made by the same." The method involves forming a coating film of a specific compound that includes a functional group on the surface of a substrate; forming a coating film of a second film compound having a second functional group on a second surface of a second substrate, bringing the first joining surface into contact by pressure with the second joining surface; and introducing a coupling agent that forms a bond between the first functional group and the second functional group.
Affymetrix of Santa Clara, Calif., has received US Patent No. 8,404,443, "Hot start nucleic acid amplification." According to the patent, a single-stranded nucleic acid binding protein is selected and provided in a reaction mixture, which is assembled at a low, nonstringent temperature to include all of the necessary reagents for successful nucleic acid duplication or amplification reactions. The inventors claim that by incorporating a single-stranded nucleic acid binding protein into the reaction mixture at low temperature, the generation of nonspecific products such as amplification products is improved despite the reaction mixture having been fully assembled at a nonstringent temperature.
Canon of Tokyo has received US Patent No. 8,404,447, "Probe, probe set, probe carrier, and testing method." A method is claimed for detecting the internal transcribed spacer region of the DNA of Arthroderma vanbreuseghemii, a pathogenic fungus. It includes contacting a sample with a probe carrier hosting a set of detection probes, detecting the reaction intensity of each probe on the probe carrier; and detecting the presence of Arthroderma vanbreuseghemii based on those intensities.
PerkinElmer of Waltham, Mass., has received US Patent No. 8,404,463, "DNA assays using amplicon probes on encoded particles." Encoded bead multiplex assays for detecting chromosomal gains and losses are provided. Also claimed are reagents for assaying DNA that consist of encoded particles hosting amplicons amplified from a template DNA sequence. According to the patent, each amplicon includes a nucleic acid sequence identical to a random portion of the template DNA sequence, where the amplicons together represent substantially the entire template DNA and where the nucleic acid sequence identical to a random portion of the template DNA sequence of each individual amplicon is shorter than the entire template DNA.
Illumina of San Diego has received US Patent No. 8,404,828, "Non-naturally occurring DNA sequences." DNA molecules are claimed that have nucleotide sequences that do not occur in nature. Also provided are fluorescently labeled DNA molecules and DNA molecules substituted with isobases, such as isocytosine or isoguanine. According to the patent, the DNA molecules, or their complements, can be attached to the surface of solid substrates, such as microspheres.
Life Technologies of Carlsbad, Calif., has received US Patent No. 8,405,828," Spatial positioning of spectrally labeled beads." The patent claims a spectral label identification method that consists of using light pressure from an energy beam to retrain a number of labeled bodies so as to order them into an array. According to the patent, following light excitation, each of the labeled bodies emits a spectrum of signals at different wavelengths, dispersing spectra simultaneously across a sensor surface. The labeled bodies can then be identified from the spectra.