The University of Laval of Laval, Canada, and the University of California of Oakland have received US Patent No. 8,534,319, "Serial siphon valves for fluidic or microfluidic devices." The devices described rely on a co-radial arrangement of serial siphon valves each separated by a capillary valve to save radial space in a fluidic system. Such serial siphon valves allow the sequential distribution of liquids in the system upon application of successive centripetal accelerations and decelerations applied to a rotary platform.
Moxtek of Orem, Utah, and the University of Utah Research Foundation of Salt Lake City have received US Patent No. 8,535,616, "Sub-wavelength metallic apertures as light enhancement devices." The light enhancement devices include a substrate and a film of metal disposed over the substrate, where the film of metal includes at least one cavity. According to the patent, these cavities may be of various shapes depending on the desired application. The inventors state that one possible use for such metallic cavity arrays is in microarray-based diagnostics.
Alps Electric of Tokyo has received US Patent No. 8,535,789, "Bonded member and process for producing the same." The patent describes a microchip plate that consists of two substrates bound to each other through an adhesive layer. According to the patent, the two substrates are made of either cycloolefin polymers or cycloolefin copolymers, and the adhesive layer is formed of paraffin or naphthene.
Life Technologies of Carlsbad, Calif., has received US Patent No. 8,536,099, "Methods of bead manipulation and forming bead arrays." The method includes washing an array of DNA-coated beads on a substrate with a solution to remove stacked beads from the substrate. This wash solution can include inert solid beads in a carrier. According to the patent, the solid beads in the wash solution can have an average diameter that is at least twice the diameter of the DNA-coated beads. The washing can form dislodged DNA-coated beads and a monolayer of DNA-coated beads. In some embodiments, slides for forming bead arrays are provided as are systems for imaging the same.