Qiagen has received US Patent No. 7,074,600, "Amplification of denatured and stabilized nucleic acids." The patent claims compositions and a method for amplification of nucleic acid sequences of interest. The method involves the replication of a target sequence so that during replication the replicated strands are displaced from the target sequence. In one form of the method, the target sample is not subjected to denaturing conditions. The primers used can be hexamer primers. The primers can also each contain at least one modified nucleotide so that the primers are nuclease resistant, according to the patent. The primers can also each contain at least one modified nucleotide such that the melting temperature of the primer is altered relative to a primer of the same sequence without the modified nucleotides, the patent's abstract states.
Reveo of Elmsford, NY, has received US Patent No. 7,075,104, "Microchannel plates and biochip arrays, and methods of making same." The patent claims a method of manufacturing a microchannel plate. The method comprises the steps of 1) implanting an ion on a substrate; 2) formatting patterned channels on the surface of the substrate; and 3) bonding of the subsequent substrate to a handle wafer. The layers are then cleaved and the steps repeated until an MCP structure is achieved. The resulting MCP structure may be used for optical signal amplification for a biochip array.
CombiMatrix has received US Patent No. 7,075,187, "Coating material over electrodes to support organic synthesis." The patent claims a coated semiconductor device having several electrodes embedded and exposed to an upper surface. A layer coating the upper surface of the semiconductor device, where the coating layer is from about 0.5 to about 100 microns thick and is composed of a mixture of inorganic porous material, such as controlled porosity glass particles is also claimed, as well as a thickening agent. The patent also provides a formulation method for coating a semiconductor device.
Applera has received US Patent No. 7,075,059, "Image enhancement by sub-pixel imaging." The patent claims methods and an apparatus for improving the resolution of an electronic imaging device having an array of pixels, such as a microarray. Sub-pixel dimension movements between an object and the array of pixels are made, and an image is formed at each position. The resulting shifted images are combined to yield an effective resolution corresponding to an array having smaller pixels. The methods and apparatus allow optical systems with existing pixel devices to form effective images of smaller feature sizes.
Charles Boone of Toronto has received US Patent No. 7,074,584, "Yeast arrays, methods of making such arrays, and methods of analyzing such arrays." The patent describes a method of detecting genetic interactions in yeast. This method can also be used to screen for function of biological effectors on yeast. The method encompasses crossing yeast strains with genetic alterations to acquire double mutants. The phenotypes of these double mutants are then checked to detect genetic interactions between the double mutants. This method can be used to assign function to yeast genes and their viral, prokaryotic, and eukaryotic homologs, and aptamers. It can also be used to study yeast two hybrid interactions and to find genes that regulate certain yeast promoters.