Roche Molecular Systems has been awarded US Patent No. 8,374,795, "Systems and methods for step discontinuity removal in real-time PCR fluorescence data."
Aditya Sane, Ronald Kurnik, and Jonathan Baldanza are named as inventors.
Describes systems and methods for removing jump discontinuities in PCR or growth data. A first approximation to a curve that fits a received data set is determined by applying a non-linear regression process to a non-linear function that models the data set to determine parameters, including a step discontinuity parameter, of the non-linear function. A second approximation to a curve that fits the data set is also determined by applying a regression process to a second non-linear function to determine parameters, including a step discontinuity parameter, of the second function. One of the first or second approximations is then selected by determining an information coefficient for each approximation. If a confidence interval calculated for the step discontinuity parameter includes the value zero, no step correction is made. If the confidence interval does not include the value zero, then a step correction is made. If a step correction is made, the portion of the data curve prior to the step change is replaced with the appropriate portion of the selected approximation to produce a shift-corrected data set. In certain aspects, the portion of the data curve up to the first point after the step change is corrected. In certain aspects, if the approximation does not satisfy a goodness of fit criterion, no step correction is made. The shift-corrected data set is returned and may be displayed or otherwise used for further processing.
The University of Southern California has been awarded US Patent No. 8,372,969, "RNA interference methods using DNA-RNA duplex constructs."
Shao-Yao Ying and Shi-Lung Lin are named as inventors.
Provides compositions and methods for suppressing the function or activity of a targeted gene through an intracellular piRNA-mediated RNAi mechanism, using RNA-DNA duplex constructs. The invention further provides methods and compositions for generating or producing RNA-DNA duplex agents, whose quantity is high enough to be used for gene silencing transfection and possibly in therapeutics applications. This improved RNA-polymerase chain reaction method uses thermocycling steps of promoter-linked DNA or RNA template synthesis,
Bio-Rad has been awarded US Patent No. 8,372,965, "Nucleotide sequences for the detection of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli."
Dominique Frechon, Francoise Loure, and Dominique Thierry are named as inventors.
Describes nucleic sequences of plasmid origin that have been isolated from bacteria of the enterohemorrhagic
Applied DNA Sciences has been awarded US Patent No. 8,372,648, "Optical reporter compositions."
Thomas Kwok, Ming-Hwa Liang, and Stephane Shu Kin So are named as inventors.
Describes compositions that contain a light-emitting reporter linked to biomolecules, preferably, nucleotide oligomers. The light reporter particles are silylated and functionalized to produce a coated light reporter particle, prior to covalently linking the biomolecules to the light reporter particle. The light reporter particles can be excited by a light source such as UV or IR light, and when the biomolecule is DNA, the attached DNA molecule(s) are detectable by amplification techniques such as PCR.
Life Technologies has been awarded US Patent No. 8,372,604, "Compositions and methods for reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)."
Jun Lee and Ayoub Rashtchian are named as inventors.
Describes compositions and methods useful for amplifying nucleic acid molecules by RT-PCR. More specifically, the invention provides compositions and methods for amplifying nucleic acid molecules in a simplified one- or two-step RT-PCR procedure using combinations of reverse transcriptase and thermostable DNA polymerase enzymes in conjunction with sulfur-containing molecules or acetate-containing molecules, or combinations thereof; and optionally bovine serum albumin. The invention thus facilitates rapid and efficient amplification of nucleic acid molecules, and is useful in the rapid production and amplification of cDNAs, which may be used for a variety of industrial, medical, and forensic purposes.
Luminex has been awarded US Patent No. 8,372,340, "Apparatus and methods for integrated sample preparation, reaction, and detection."
Dylan Bird, Jesus Ching, Bruce Johnson, Keith Moravick, and Bruce Richardson are named as inventors.
Provides cartridges for isolating and performing downstream biological assays on a biological sample. In one embodiment, a nucleic acid sample is isolated from a biological sample and amplified, for example by PCR. The cartridges can also be used to isolate non-nucleic acid samples, for example proteins, and to perform downstream reactions, such as binding assays, on the proteins. The patent also describes instruments for carrying out and detecting the results of the assays.