Patents Examined by Frank W Lu
  • Patent number: 10533215
    Abstract: Described herein are products and processes for nucleic acid quantification, which are in part useful for detecting and determining the nucleotide sequence of rare nucleic acids (i.e., low copy number nucleic acids) in a sample. Such products and processes are useful for reducing the dynamic range among different nucleic acid species.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2020
    Assignee: Sequenom, Inc.
    Inventor: Charles R. Cantor
  • Patent number: 10533996
    Abstract: In some embodiments, the present disclosure pertains to new compositions of matter that comprise phosphorescent reporters. In some embodiments, the phosphorescent reporters of the present disclosure comprise strontium aluminate. In some embodiments, the strontium aluminate is doped with europium and dysprosium (SrAl2O4:Eu2+, Dy3+). Additional embodiments of the present disclosure pertain to methods of making the aforementioned phosphorescent reporters. In some embodiments, the method includes size reduction of inorganic phosphorescent powders through a combination of wet milling and settling. In additional embodiments, the present disclosure pertains to methods of detecting the phosphorescent reporters in various settings, such as diagnostic settings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2020
    Assignee: University of Houston
    Inventors: Richard Willson, Andrew Paterson
  • Patent number: 10527612
    Abstract: In a method and arrangement for detecting binding events of molecules, at least one second molecule covalently bound to a ligand, and optionally bonded to a third molecule bound to a ligand, forms a specific non-covalent fond with a first molecule immobilised on a bioactive surface by a covalent bond, and binding events between an analyte molecule and the second-molecule bound ligand are detected by an analytical measuring method, wherein the specific non-covalent bond between the first and second molecules is breakable by supplying a buffer solution, and, hence, a specific ligand, or two, different specific ligands are made available on the bioactive surface in an easily reversible manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET DRESDEN
    Inventors: Weilin Lin, Robert Wieduwild, Luca Mannocci, Jana Herrmann, Yixin Zhang, Francesco Reddavide
  • Patent number: 10501779
    Abstract: Novel methods and compositions for identifying one or more factors associated with a nucleic acid sequence (e.g., DNA and/or RNA) of interest are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: President and Fellows of Harvard College
    Inventors: Chao-ting Wu, Brian Beliveau
  • Patent number: 10501791
    Abstract: A method of sequencing nucleic acids is provided using sequencing by ligation and/or sequencing by hybridization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Inventors: George M. Church, Richard C. Terry, Frederic Vigneault, Francois Vigneault
  • Patent number: 10487322
    Abstract: Methods of directly isolating nucleic acid from an embedded biological sample are provided. An emulsified digest is generated in the presence of a thermostable protease, and an additive selected from an alkylene glycol, a poly(alkylene glycol), or a block copolymer having an average Mn of 76 to 2900, or a salt or derivative or combination thereof. Nucleic acid is isolated directly from the emulsified digest. The methods eliminate the use of organic solvents such as xylene in a deparaffinization step prior to isolating nucleic acids from paraffin-embedded samples, for example.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: LIFE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Richard Conrad, Marie Gonzalez, Emily Zeringer
  • Patent number: 10480021
    Abstract: Methods of identifying DNase I Hyper-Resistant Sites (DHRS), or in board sense, highly compact chromatin and characterizing the DNA methylation status of DMRs such as CpG islands and CpG island shores are provided. The methods are particularly useful for analysis of genomic DNA from low quantities of cells, for example, less than 1,000 cells, less than 100 cells, less than 10 cells, or even one cell, and can be used to generate chromatin and methylation profiles. The downstream analyses include in parallel massive sequencing, microarray, PCR and Sanger sequencing, hybridization and other platforms. These methods can be used to generate chromatin and DNA methylation profiles in drug development, diagnostics, and therapeutic applications are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: YALE UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Xinghua Pan, Sherman M. Weissman
  • Patent number: 10472620
    Abstract: A method is provided herein, the method includes: applying a sample comprising target nucleic acids to a sample application zone of a substrate; and flowing a nucleic acid amplification reaction mixture across a length of the substrate through the sample application zone to amplify the target nucleic acid forming a nucleic acid amplification product; wherein the target nucleic acid having a first molecular weight is substantially immobilized at the sample application zone and wherein the amplification product having a second molecular weight migrates away from the sample application zone. An associated device is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: General Electric Company
    Inventors: John Richard Nelson, David Roger Moore, Robert Scott Duthie, Matthew Jeremiah Misner, Gregory Andrew Grossmann, Elizabeth Marie Dees, Patrick McCoy Spooner, Erik Leeming Kvam, Andrew Arthur Paul Burns, Vicki Herzl Watkins
  • Patent number: 10457977
    Abstract: This invention generally relates to particle-assisted nucleic acid sequencing. In some embodiments, sequencing may be performed in a microfluidic device, which can offer desirable properties, for example, minimal use of reagents, facile scale-up, and/or high throughput. In one embodiment, a target nucleic acid may be exposed to particles having nucleic acid probes. By determining the binding of the particles to the target nucleic acid, the sequence of the target nucleic acid (or at least a portion of the target nucleic acid) can be determined. The target nucleic acid may be encapsulated within a fluidic droplet with the particles having nucleic acid probes, in certain instances. In some cases, the sequence of the target nucleic acid may be determined, based on binding of the particles, using sequencing by hybridization (SBH) algorithms or other known techniques.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2019
    Assignee: President and Fellows of Harvard College
    Inventors: David A. Weitz, Adam R. Abate
  • Patent number: 10457981
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are hybridization buffer compositions and hybridization compositions, methods of making the compositions, and methods of using the compositions, such as the hybridization of DNA or RNA sequences by fluorescence in situ hybridization (“FISH”).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2019
    Assignee: Abbott Molecular Inc.
    Inventors: Klara Abravaya, Madhuri Lucas, Ekaterina Pestova, Adam Koch, Kimberly Wilber-Mader
  • Patent number: 10421991
    Abstract: Methods for typing a strain of an organism are provided, the methods comprising the steps of amplifying, in a single reaction mixture containing nucleic acid from the organism, dividing the reaction mixture into a plurality of sets of second-stage reaction wells, each set of second-stage reaction wells containing a different pair of second-stage primers, subjecting each of the second-stage reaction wells to amplification conditions to generate a plurality of second-stage amplicons, melting the second-stage amplicons to generate a melting curve for each second-stage amplicon, and identifying the strain of the organism from the melting curves.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2019
    Assignees: BioFire Diagnostics, LLC, University of Utah Research Foundation
    Inventors: Anne Jeannette Blaschke-Bonkowsky, Mark Aaron Poritz
  • Patent number: 10400275
    Abstract: The present invention relates to in situ hybridization methods for detecting a target nucleic acid in a biological sample comprising performing one or more method steps (e.g., pretreatment, denaturation, hybridization, washes) at room temperature. The invention further relates to kits for performing such methods.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: Cellay, Inc.
    Inventor: Joan Aurich-Costa
  • Patent number: 10370652
    Abstract: Methods for amplification and sequencing of at least one nucleic acid comprising the following steps: (1) forming at least one nucleic acid template comprising the nucleic acid(s) to be amplified or sequenced, wherein said nucleic acid(s) contains at the 5? end an oligonucleotide sequence Y and at the 3? end an oligonucleotide sequence Z and, in addition, the nucleic acid(s) carry at the 5? end a means for attaching the nucleic acid(s) to a solid support; (2) mixing said nucleic acid template(s) with one or more colony primers X, which can hybridize to the oligonucleotide sequence Z and carries at the 5? end a means for attaching the colony primers to a solid support, in the presence of a solid support so that the 5? ends of both the nucleic acid template and the colony primers bind to the solid support; (3) performing one or more nucleic acid amplification reactions on the bound template(s), so that nucleic acid colonies are generated and optionally, performing at least one step of sequence determination of
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2019
    Assignee: Illumina, Inc.
    Inventors: Celine Adessi, Eric Kawashima, Pascal Mayer, Jean-Jacques Mermod, Gerardo Turcatti
  • Patent number: 10364455
    Abstract: The invention generally relates to compositions for maximizing capture of affinity-labeled molecules on solid supports. The disclosed methods and compositions were developed to maximize depletion of ribosomal RNA from total RNA samples, which is useful to improve the quality of RNA preparations used for applications such as massively parallel sequencing. The RNA depletion method is based on using long affinity-labeled RNA molecules that are complementary to all or part of the target ribosomal RNAs, as subtractive hybridization probes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2019
    Assignee: BIOO Scientific Corporation
    Inventors: Marianna Goldrick, Lance Lepovitz, Masoud Toloue
  • Patent number: 10329598
    Abstract: Methods and kits for preparing nucleic acid fragments from a sample of purified nucleic acid are provided. Alternatively, chromatin or other long polymers can be sheared with similar methods and kits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2019
    Assignee: LIFE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Vladimir I. Bashkirov, Umberto Ulmanella, Robert G. Eason, Bradford J. Taft
  • Patent number: 10329613
    Abstract: Provided herein is a method for sequencing a polynucleotide molecules. The method includes the steps of providing a plurality of polynucleotide molecules attached to a surface, wherein a first portion of each polynucleotide molecule is attached to a first location of the surface and a second portion of each polynucleotide molecule is attached to a second location of the surface, the relative proximity of the first and second locations being correlated with the probability that the first and second portions are paired, separating the first and second portions of the polynucleotide molecules on the surface, determining the sequences of the first and second portions of the polynucleotide molecules and comparing the relative proximities and the sequences to determine which first and second portions are paired and to determine the sequence of the target polynucleotide molecules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 25, 2019
    Assignee: Illumina Cambridge Limited
    Inventors: Roberto Rigatti, Niall Anthony Gormley, Jonathan Mark Boutell
  • Patent number: 10323236
    Abstract: Engineered nucleases (e.g., zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcriptional activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), and others) are promising tools for genome manipulation and determining off-target cleavage sites of these enzymes is of great interest. We developed an in vitro selection method that interrogates 1011 DNA sequences for their ability to be cleaved by active, dimeric nucleases, e.g., ZFNs and TALENs. The method revealed hundreds of thousands of DNA sequences, some present in the human genome, that can be cleaved in vitro by two ZFNs, CCR5-224 and VF2468, which target the endogenous human CCR5 and VEGF-A genes, respectively. Our findings establish an energy compensation model of ZFN specificity in which excess binding energy contributes to off-target ZFN cleavage and suggest strategies for the improvement of future nuclease design. It was also observed that TALENs can achieve cleavage specificity similar to or higher than that observed in ZFNs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2019
    Assignee: President and Fellows of Harvard College
    Inventors: David R. Liu, John Paul Guilinger, Vikram Pattanayak
  • Patent number: 10308979
    Abstract: This disclosure provides a method comprising: a) clamping the top and bottom strands of a double stranded DNA molecule to produce a duplex in which the top and bottom strands are linked; b) denaturing the duplex to produce a denatured product; and c) renaturing the denatured product in the presence of a labeled oligonucleotide that is complementary to a sequence of nucleotides in the double stranded DNA molecule, thereby producing a D-loop-containing product. Kits for performing the method and products made by the method are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2019
    Assignee: AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventors: Brian Jon Peter, Robert A. Ach, Zoltan Timar, Joel Myerson, Jeffrey Robert Sampson, Holly Hogrefe
  • Patent number: 10301668
    Abstract: A method of identifying a first target nucleic acid comprising, providing a sample comprising the first target nucleic acid, providing a first set of paired oligonucleotides with complementarity to the first target nucleic acid, the first set of paired oligonucleotides comprising a first ratio of (a) first competitive oligonucleotides to (b) first signal oligonucleotides comprising a signal tag, wherein the competitive oligonucleotides compete with the signal oligonucleotides for binding to the first target nucleic acid, amplifying the first target nucleic acid with the polymerase chain reaction, thereby degrading the first signal oligonucleotide and permitting generation of a first signal, generating the first signal, measuring intensity of the first signal, and correlating the intensity of the first signal to the first ratio, thereby identifying the first target nucleic acid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2019
    Assignee: CHROMACODE, INC.
    Inventors: Lucien A. E. Jacky, Aditya Rajagopal, Karen L. Menge, Gregory Gosch
  • Patent number: 10294512
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for analyzing biomolecules by using an oligonucleotide, and specifically, provides a method and an apparatus for determining the meaning of biomolecules in a biosample by analyzing through one examination of the biomolecules contained in the biosample by preparing, with respect to a nucleic acid including a target nucleic acid such as nucleic acid and receptor-analysis ligand conjugates, an oligonucleotide, which complementarily binds completely to a specific region of the target nucleic acid, and analyzing the target nucleic acid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2019
    Inventor: Sung-Chun Kim