Life Technologies of Carlsbad, Calif., has received US Patent No. 7,977,057, "Detection of immobilized nucleic acid." Methods for determining the presence of immobilized nucleic acid are described. The methods rely on unsymmetrical cyanine dyes that are derivatives of thiazole orange, a staining solution, and select fluorogenic compounds that are characterized as being essentially non-genotoxic. The methods call for immobilizing nucleic acid — single- or double-stranded DNA, RNA, or a combination — on a solid or semi-solid support; contacting the immobilized nucleic acid with an unsymmetrical cyanine dye compound, and then illuminating the immobilized nucleic acid with an appropriate wavelength, after which the presence of the nucleic acid is determined. Typically the solid or semi-solid support is selected from the group consisting of a polymeric gel, a membrane, an array, a glass bead, a glass slide, and a polymeric microparticle, according to the patent.
Agilent Technologies of Santa Clara, Calif., has received US Patent No. 7,977,119, "Chemical arrays and methods of using the same." A chemical array of surface-immobilized first moieties is subjected to cleavage conditions so that a composition of solution-phase first moieties is produced. The resulting composition of solution-phase first moieties is then contacted with one or more reactants to produce a mixture of product molecules that are different from the first moieties. Arrays and kits for carrying out the methods are also provided.
Agilent has also received US Patent No. 7,979,215, "Methods and systems for evaluating CGH candidate probe nucleic acid sequences." Aspects of the methods include providing a candidate comparative genomic hybridization probe nucleic acid sequence for a target sequence of a copy number variation of a genome. A proximity score is then determined for the candidate CGH probe nucleic acid sequence and employed to evaluate the sequence. Computer programming systems to conduct this evaluation are also described.
Illumina of San Diego has received US Patent No. 7,977,456, "Apparatus and method for separation of liquid phases of different density and for fluorous phase organic syntheses." A method is described for separating layers of immiscible or partially miscible liquids useful in methods of high-throughput combinatorial organic synthesis or parallel extraction of large libraries or megaarrays of organic compounds. The method can be conducted for combinatorial organic synthesis or purification. In a preferred embodiment, an apparatus for separating layers of immiscible or partially miscible liquids compatible with microtiter plate type arrays of reaction vessels is described. The approach can also be employed to carry out centrifugation-based liquid removal for washing the plates in biological assays or synthesis on modified substrates.
Illumina has also received US Patent No. 7,977,476, "Methods of attaching biological compounds to solid supports using triazine." Methods of attaching biologically active compounds to a solid surface by modifying the surface using triazine chloride and attaching the biologically active compound to the triazine moiety are claimed.
HistoRx of New Haven, Conn., has received US Patent No. 7,978,258, "Automatic exposure time selection for imaging tissue." A system for automatically adjusting an exposure time to improve the dynamic range of a digital image is claimed. The system includes a camera configured to capture an image at a first exposure time, where the captured image is composed of multiple pixels, with each pixel having a respective intensity value. The system also includes a shutter or suitable control configured to control an exposure time of the camera. By querying a frequency distribution of pixel intensity values, determining an effective center of mass of such a distribution to determine an adjusted exposure time, and capturing a second image of the subject at the adjusted exposure time, an image with an improved dynamic range can be obtained. According to the patent, the images may include tissue histospots contained in a tissue microarray.
The United States of America has received US Patent No. 7,979,446, "Computer-implemented biological sequence identifier system and method." The patent claims a method for processing a biological sequence obtained from an assay by converting base calls located in a predetermined list of positions within the biological sequence to N and determining the ratio of SNPs in the biological sequence relative to a reference sequence. According to the patent, each entry in the predetermined list of positions represents the capability of a substance hybridizing to a microarray used to generate the biological sequence, where the substance is not the nucleic acid of a target pathogen.