Canon US Life Sciences has been awarded US Patent No. 8,409,848, "System and method for rapid thermal cycling."
Shulin Zeng, Kenton Hasson, Gregory Dale, and John Keady are named as inventors.
At least one exemplary embodiment of the invention is directed to an apparatus that includes a microfluidic channel and at least one energy-absorbing element configured to absorb at least a portion of an incident electromagnetic radiation. The absorption of the radiation by the energy-absorbing element varies the temperature of a sample in the microfluidic channel.
Esoterix Genetic Laboratories has been awarded US Patent No. 8,409,829, "Methods for analysis of molecular events."
Anthony Shuber, Lisa Kann, and Duncan Whitney are named as inventors.
Provides methods and compositions to detect the presence of nucleic acid sequence variants in a subpopulation of nucleic acid molecules in a biological sample. These methods are particularly useful to identify individuals with mutations indicative of cancer, the patent's abstract states.
Life Technologies has been awarded US Patent No. 8,409,806, "Allelic ladder loci."
Robert Green, Julio Mulero, Lori Hennessy, Robert Lagace, and Chien-Wei Chang are named as inventors.
Discloses rare short tandem repeat alleles within the D10S1248 and D12S391 loci in humans. The patent also provides representative allelic ladders for each locus, methods and assays using these alleles, and kits containing allelic ladders that comprise these alleles to accurately genotype and identify a wide range of individuals.
Asuragen has been awarded US Patent No. 8,409,805, "Method of amplification of GC-rich DNA templates."
Gary Latham is named as inventor.
Provides methods for increasing the processivity of DNA polymerases on GC-rich templates. The methods relate to providing enhancers and biased ratios of dNTPs; may be used in DNA amplification reactions; and are useful to detect genotypes associated with GC-rich repeats, including fragile X syndrome.
Rubicon Genomics has been awarded US Patent No. 8,409,804, "Isolation of CpG islands by thermal segregation and enzymatic selection-amplification method."
Vladimir Makarov, Emmanuel Kamberov, and Brendan Tarrier are named as inventors.
Discloses isolation, library preparation, and selective amplification from a compositionally heterogeneous pool of DNA fragments of a fraction of molecules, such as those originating from promoter CpG islands and characterized by a high GC content. In particular, the process utilizes a heat-induced segregation of DNA molecules into GC-poor, single-stranded molecule fractions and GC-rich, double-stranded molecule fractions, with subsequent enzymatic conversion of the GC-rich, double-stranded DNA molecules into a library, and, optionally, amplification. In specific embodiments, the isolation process is used to generate promoter-enriched genomic and methylome libraries for research and diagnostic applications, for example.
Roche Molecular Systems has been awarded US Patent No. 8,409,802, "Format of probes to detect nucleic acid differences."
Stephen Will is named as inventor.
According to its abstract, the patent provides, inter alia, novel probes, methods, reaction mixtures, and kits to detect the presence or absence of a target nucleic acid sequence.
Genereach Biotechnology of Taichung, Taiwan, has been awarded US Patent No. 8,409,532, "Apparatus for insulated isothermal polymerase chain reaction."
Ping-Hua Teng and Cheng Su are named as inventors.
Describes an apparatus to hold a test tube in which insulated isothermal PCR is performed. The apparatus includes a heat insulating mount and a heating member. The heat insulating mount has a main body with a receiving space to receive a bottom of the test tube; a lateral channel between the receiving space and an ambient environment; and an upper channel between the receiving space and the ambient environment for insertion of the test tube. The heating member is inserted into the lateral channel for stopping at the bottom of the test tube. The apparatus can minimize the influence caused by the high temperature generated from the heat source through the heat dissipation of the reaction mixture in middle and upper sections of the test tube, and is suitable for fluorescent detection of the PCR reaction, the patent's abstract states.