Gen-Probe (Hologic) has been awarded US Patent No. 8,563,707, "Compositions and methods for detection of hepatitis A virus nucleic acid."
James Carlson and Steven Brentano are named as inventors.
Describes nucleic acid oligomeric sequences and in vitro nucleic acid amplification methods for detecting the presence of hepatitis A virus (HAV) RNA sequences, as well as kits comprising nucleic acid oligomers for amplifying and detecting HAV nucleic acid.
Applied Biosystems (Life Technologies) has been awarded US Patent No. 8,563,275, "Method and device for detecting the presence of a single target nucleic acid in a sample."
James Brown and Jonathan Silver are named as inventors.
Describes a method for subjecting samples to a single amplification step which amplifies a single molecule to a detectable level. In some embodiments, the method also determines whether the sample contains at least one molecule of the target nucleic acid.
Stokes Bio (Life Technologies) has been awarded US Patent No. 8,563,244, "Microfluidic droplet queuing network."
Mark Davies, Tara Dalton, Julie Garvey, Kieran Curran, and Damian Curtin are named as inventors.
Describes a method for managing a queue of droplets in a network where a multi-port liquid bridge adds aqueous phase droplets in an enveloping oil phase carrier to a draft channel. Phases are density matched to create an environment where gravitational forces are negligible, resulting in droplets adopting spherical forms when suspended from capillary tube tips, and equality of mass flow is equal to equality of volume flow. The queue of mixed droplets flow downstream to be further processed by, for example, a thermal cycler. An application of this is the arrangement of primers in a well for queuing, then the addition of a patient's sample along with the other required premix occurring in the mixer. A continuous thermal cycler for DNA amplification using the PCR may be downstream from the mixers.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong has been awarded US Patent No. 8,563,242, "Method for detecting chromosomal aneuploidy."
Yuk Ming Dennis Lo, Rossa Wai Kwun Chiu, Yu Kwan Tong, Jin Shengnan, Siu Chung Stephen Chim, and Wai Yi Tsui are named as inventors.
Provides a non-invasive method for detecting chromosomal aneuploidy by analyzing a sample from a pregnant woman. The detection is based on the ratio between the amount of a fetal methylation marker located on a chromosome relevant to the aneuploidy and amount of a fetal genetic marker located on a reference chromosome.
The University of Toledo has been awarded US Patent No. 8,563,238, "Method for quantitative measurement of gene expression for identifying individuals at risk for bronchogenic carcinoma."
James Willey, David Weaver, and Erin Crawford are named as inventors.
Describes a method allowing simultaneous measurement of multiple target genes for bronchogenic carcinoma in a progenitor cell using reverse transcription PCR.
IntegenXhas been awarded US Patent No. 8,562,918, "Universal sample preparation system and use in an integrated analysis system."
Stevan Jovanovich, William Nielsen, David Cohen, Michael Recknor, Mattias Vangbo, Ezra Van Gelder, Lars Majlof, and Omar El-Sissi are named as inventors.
Discloses a system to process a raw biological sample, perform a biochemical reaction, and provide an analysis readout in less than four hours. For example, the system can extract DNA from a swab, amplify STR loci from the DNA, and then analyze the data. In one embodiment, the system includes a sample purification module, a reaction module, a post-reaction cleanup module, a capillary electrophoresis module, and a computer. The system fits within an enclosure of no more than 10 ft.3 and can be a closed, portable, and/or a battery-operated system.