Erie Scientific (now part of Thermo Scientific) of Portsmouth, NH, has received US Patent No. 7,943,093, "Cover slip." The cover slip described can be used as part of a chamber for a hybridization reaction. The slip has a surface and two substantially parallel, opposed edges binding that surface. A spacer has a pair of spacer segments, and each spacer segment extends along substantially a full length of a different one of the opposed edges, forming a chamber between the spacer segments, the cover slip, and the substrate. According to the patent, the created chamber receives the specimen when the cover slip is placed on the substrate with the spacer sandwiched between. The cover slip has a thickness that permits it to maintain a distance between the surface and the substrate when a liquid is introduced.
Eppendorf of Hamburg, Germany, has received US Patent No. 7,943,299, "Method for determining nucleotide sequences." A method for determining the presence of at least one SNP at a nucleotide position in a nucleotide sequence is claimed. It is accomplished by using a microarray containing second nucleotide sequences fixed at predetermined sites, where each of the second nucleotide sequences is complementary to the first nucleotide sequence except for a single substitution of a different nucleotide at a position corresponding to the nucleotide position of the SNP in the first nucleotide sequence and where each of the second nucleotide sequences is between 15 and 30 nucleotides in length.
Cornell Research Foundation of Ithaca, NY, has received US Patent No. 7,943,305, "High speed nucleic acid sequencing." The temporal order of base additions during polymerization reactions is measured on a molecule of nucleic acid, according to the patent. Each type of labeled nucleotide includes an acceptor fluorophore attached to a phosphate portion of the nucleotide so that the fluorophore is removed upon incorporation into a growing strand. A fluorescent signal is then emitted via fluorescent resonance energy transfer between the donor fluorophore and the acceptor fluorophore as each nucleotide is incorporated into the growing strand. The sequence is deduced by identifying which base is being incorporated into the growing strand.
Affymetrix of Santa Clara, Calif., and the Centre National de la Recherche of Paris have received US Patent No. 7,943,581, "Cell penetrating peptides for intracellular delivery of molecules." The patent describes cell-penetrating peptides that include a particular amino acid sequence. These CPPs can be used as vectors for delivering nucleic acids, proteins, and peptides to cells, in vitro or in vivo. The CPPs can be used, for instance, to silence a target mRNA. They can also be used in treating cancer by administering to a patient a described complex.
Rosetta Genomics of Rehovot, Israel, has received US Patent No. 7,943,754, "Bioinformatically detectable group of novel regulatory bacterial and bacterial associated oligonucleotides and uses thereof." A group of bacterial and human associated oligonucleotides, called Genomic Address Messenger, or GAM, oligonucleotides, are claimed, as is a second group of operon-like bacterial and human polynucleotides, referred to as Genomic Record, or GR, polynucleotides. The claimed GAM oligonucleotides selectively inhibit translation of known target genes, many of which are known to be involved in various bacterial infections. Nucleic acid molecules are provided respectively encoding 21,916 bacterial and 6,100 human GAM precursor oligonucleotides, and 6,056 bacterial and 430 human GR polynucleotides. Methods for detecting expression of GAM oligonucleotides and GR polynucleotides using arrays are also claimed.