The California Institute of Technology of Pasadena has received US Patent No. 8,129,176, "Integrated active flux microfluidic devices and methods." The claimed device is capable of detecting the presence of molecules, such as polynucleotides, proteins, or antigen/antibody complexes, that are correlated to a hybridization signal from an optically detectable reporter associated with the bound molecules. Hybridization probes are immobilized on a substrate exposed to channels of the device that form a closed loop, for circulation of sample to contact complementary probes. Arrays of DNA, RNA, proteins, peptide nucleic acid, and polyamide molecules can be assayed on the device.
Roche NimbleGen of Madison, Wis., has received US Patent No. 8,129,196, "Parallel loading of arrays." A microarray hybridization chamber is described that enables the parallel loading of samples. The chamber consists of a sample-loading array containing microchannels, a microarray consisting of sub-arrays, a membrane in contact with the loading array that allows for the selective passing of liquids and molecules through the membrane and through the micro-channels, and a gasket.
Corning of Corning, NY, has received US Patent No. 8,129,198, "Porous substrate plates and the use thereof." The patent describes microarray substrates and multiwell plates that have a three-dimensional, porous layer as part of a support surface on each slide or within each well for immobilizing probe species. The porous layer is characterized as having interconnected voids defined by a matrix of contiguous solid material.
Agilent Technologies of Santa Clara, Calif., has received US Patent No. 8,131,471, "Methods and system for simultaneous visualization and manipulation of multiple data types." Methods of organizing and manipulating diverse data sets to facilitate identification, trends, correlations and other useful relationships among the data are claimed. According to the patent, large data sets such as microarray data and other biological data are graphically displayed and sorted in an effort to develop visual similarities, correlations, or trends that can be seen by a user. Various schemes for graphical representations of the data, as well as sorting schemes, are provided, including sorting schemes performed relative to pseudo-data vectors.
The US Department of Health and Human Services of Washington, DC, has received US Patent No. 8,131,475, "Methods for identifying, diagnosing, and predicting survival of lymphomas." A method is provided for predicting survival in a follicular lymphoma subject. In this method, a biopsy sample is obtained from the subject and gene expression data is obtained from the biopsy sample via microarray. The expression levels of those genes belonging to an immune response-1 or immune response-2 gene expression signature are then averaged to generate gene expression signature values for each signature. A survival predictor score is then calculated using a specified equation. A higher survival predictor score is associated with a less favorable outcome.
GE of Niskayuna, NY, has received US Patent No. 8,131,476, "System and method for co-registering multi-channel images of a tissue microarray." The method includes: providing a biological material on a substrate; applying one or more molecular probes, adapted to provide fluorescent molecular markers, to the biological material; obtaining a digital image of the biological material and the fluorescent molecular markers; applying a morphological stain to the biological material; obtaining a second digital image of the biological material; computing information common to the first and second images; and co-registering the second image with the first image based on one or more registration metrics.