US Patent No. 6,610,472. Assembly and screening of highly complex and fully human antibody repertoire in yeast. Inventors: Li Zhu, Shaobing Hua, James Sheridan, Yu-Huei Lin. Assignee: Genetastix.
Covers compositions, methods, and kits for generating a library of protein complexes and conducting high-throughput screens to pull out those that bind other proteins or oligos. One feature allows the self-assembly in vivo of protein complexes by expressing protein components with separate expression vectors and then introducing them into cells.
US Patent No. 6,617,575. Modified ion source target for use in liquid MALDI-MS. Inventors: Rainer Karl Cramer. Assignee: Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.
Covers a modified ion source target that can be used with liquid matrices such as glycerol and lactic acid for MALDI-MS analysis. The invention is best used with time-of-flight mass spectrometers. The covered target includes a target plate, shielded sample cavity adapted for use with liquid samples, and a cavity shield containing exit holes for the ions produced. The patent also covers the methods of MALDI-MS that are used in conjunction with the protected target source — in particular, a method of infrared liquid MALDI-TOF.
US Patent No. 6,617,119. Assay for specific strains of multiple disease-related conformations of a protein. Inventors: Stanley Prusiner, Jiri Safar, Fred Cohen. Assignee: University of California.
Covers an assay methodology for probing samples for the presence of particular conformations of proteins that are indicative of disease. The protected metho- dology includes the following steps: screening a sample for the presence of a disease-related protein conformation, determining the amount of protease-resistant and protease-sensitive protein in a sample, and determining the strain and incubation time of a disease-related protein by relating the relative amounts of protease-resistant and protease-sensitive protein variants.
US Patent No. 6,614,017. Liquid chromatograph mass spectrometer. Inventors: Hiroaki Waki. Assignee: Shimadzu.
Covers an integrated LC-MS instrument featuring a solvent-removing tube connecting a spray chamber and another chamber such that the nozzle of the tube sprays downward, with a drain for solvent liquid loc-ated in front of the nozzle. Since the spraying direction is oblique to a partition wall, the liquid collides with the drain. This design is intended to reduce noise and any “memory effect” contaminating spectra.
US Patent No. 6,611,766. Proteome analysis for characterization of up- and down-regulated proteins in biological samples. Inventors: Peter Larsen, Stephen Fey.
Covers fragments, probes, diagnostic, and therapeutic compositions and methods, as well as computer systems, for analyzing images of proteomes of whole organisms, organs, tissues, biopsies, cell lines, and body fluids in order to characterize proteins and nucleic acids that are up- or down-regulated in treated, diseased, or immunologically-affected conditions. The images can be colored or black and white images of many protein analysis assays, iincluding Northern, Southern or Western blots, 1D gels and 2D gels. The patented method involves generating a master composite image, and master composite spot data list.
US Patent No. 6,610,978. Integrated sample preparation, separation, and introduction microdevice for inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Inventors: Hongfeng Yin, Thomas Doherty, Sally Swedberg. Assignee: Agilent Technologies.
Covers novel microdevices for introducing small volumes of fluid sample into an ionization chamber. The microdevices have two opposing surfaces. On the first surface is a microchannel with a cover plate for transporting the sample. A sample inlet port defines the flow path for the sample from the microdevice to the ionization chamber. There is an optional component that allows the fluid sample to undergo a chemical or biochemical reaction within the microdevice before entering the ionization chamber.
US Patent No. 6,608,302. Method for calibrating a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer. Inventors: Richard Smith, Christophe Masselon, Aleksey Tomachev.
Covers a method for calibrating an FT-ICR mass spec. The method requires the measurement of the frequency spectrum of a sample and the frequency and intensity of at least three species with known m/z ratios and one with an unknown m/z ratio. The method uses the known m/z ratios, frequencies, and intensities to calculate coefficients used for then calculating the m/z ratio of the unknown species.