Patents by Inventor Mark E. Hester

Mark E. Hester has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240096445
    Abstract: Illustrative embodiments of systems and methods for the identification of traits associated with DNA samples using epigenetic-based patterns detected via massively parallel sequencing (MPS) are disclosed. Illustrative embodiments may involve digesting a DNA sample with a methylation-dependent endonuclease, amplifying loci of the digested DNA sample (including a positive control locus that does not contain a restriction site for the methylation-dependent endonuclease) using a multiplex PCR to produce amplicons, sequencing the amplicons using an MPS instrument to generate sequence reads, determining a sequence count for each of the loci by comparing each of the sequence reads to reference sequences, normalizing the sequence count for each of the loci to the sequence count of the positive control locus, and identifying a trait associated with the DNA sample by applying a classification algorithm to the normalized sequence counts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 28, 2023
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Inventors: Craig M. Bartling, Mark E. Hester, Esley M. Heizer
  • Patent number: 11854665
    Abstract: Illustrative embodiments of systems and methods for the identification of traits associated with DNA samples using epigenetic-based patterns detected via massively parallel sequencing (MPS) are disclosed. Illustrative embodiments may involve digesting a DNA sample with a methylation-dependent endonuclease, amplifying loci of the digested DNA sample (including a positive control locus that does not contain a restriction site for the methylation-dependent endonuclease) using a multiplex PCR to produce amplicons, sequencing the amplicons using an MPS instrument to generate sequence reads, determining a sequence count for each of the loci by comparing each of the sequence reads to reference sequences, normalizing the sequence count for each of the loci to the sequence count of the positive control locus, and identifying a trait associated with the DNA sample by applying a classification algorithm to the normalized sequence counts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute
    Inventors: Craig M. Bartling, Mark E. Hester, Esley M. Heizer
  • Publication number: 20230197196
    Abstract: In one illustrative embodiment, an allelotyping method may include selecting a plurality of text strings that each represent a nucleotide sequence that was read by a massively parallel sequencing (MPS) instrument, where the nucleotide sequences represented by the selected plurality of text strings each correspond to a particular locus, comparing the selected plurality of text strings to one another to determine an abundance count for each unique text string included in the selected plurality of text strings, and determining one or more alleles for the particular locus by comparing the abundance count for each unique text string included in the selected plurality of text strings to an abundance threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2022
    Publication date: June 22, 2023
    Inventors: Brian A. Young, Angela T. Minard-Smith, Esley M. Heizer, Jr., Daniel M. Bornman, Mark E. Hester, Boyu Yang
  • Patent number: 11468970
    Abstract: In one illustrative embodiment, an allelotyping method may include selecting a plurality of text strings that each represent a nucleotide sequence that was read by a massively parallel sequencing (MPS) instrument, where the nucleotide sequences represented by the selected plurality of text strings each correspond to a particular locus, comparing the selected plurality of text strings to one another to determine an abundance count for each unique text string included in the selected plurality of text strings, and determining one or more alleles for the particular locus by comparing the abundance count for each unique text string included in the selected plurality of text strings to an abundance threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE
    Inventors: Brian A. Young, Angela T. Minard-Smith, Esley M. Heizer, Jr., Daniel M. Bornman, Mark E. Hester, Boyu Yang
  • Publication number: 20200035330
    Abstract: Illustrative embodiments of systems and methods for the identification of traits associated with DNA samples using epigenetic-based patterns detected via massively parallel sequencing (MPS) are disclosed. Illustrative embodiments may involve digesting a DNA sample with a methylation-dependent endonuclease, amplifying loci of the digested DNA sample (including a positive control locus that does not contain a restriction site for the methylation-dependent endonuclease) using a multiplex PCR to produce amplicons, sequencing the amplicons using an MPS instrument to generate sequence reads, determining a sequence count for each of the loci by comparing each of the sequence reads to reference sequences, normalizing the sequence count for each of the loci to the sequence count of the positive control locus, and identifying a trait associated with the DNA sample by applying a classification algorithm to the normalized sequence counts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 14, 2019
    Publication date: January 30, 2020
    Inventors: Craig M. Bartling, Mark E. Hester, Esley M. Heizer
  • Patent number: 10490299
    Abstract: Illustrative embodiments of systems and methods for the identification of traits associated with DNA samples using epigenetic-based patterns detected via massively parallel sequencing (MPS) are disclosed. Illustrative embodiments may involve digesting a DNA sample with a methylation-dependent endonuclease, amplifying loci of the digested DNA sample (including a positive control locus that does not contain a restriction site for the methylation-dependent endonuclease) using a multiplex PCR to produce amplicons, sequencing the amplicons using an MPS instrument to generate sequence reads, determining a sequence count for each of the loci by comparing each of the sequence reads to reference sequences, normalizing the sequence count for each of the loci to the sequence count of the positive control locus, and identifying a trait associated with the DNA sample by applying a classification algorithm to the normalized sequence counts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute
    Inventors: Craig M. Bartling, Mark E. Hester, Esley M. Heizer
  • Publication number: 20150354002
    Abstract: Illustrative embodiments of systems and methods for the identification of traits associated with DNA samples using epigenetic-based patterns detected via massively parallel sequencing (MPS) are disclosed. Illustrative embodiments may involve digesting a DNA sample with a methylation-dependent endonuclease, amplifying loci of the digested DNA sample (including a positive control locus that does not contain a restriction site for the methylation-dependent endonuclease) using a multiplex PCR to produce amplicons, sequencing the amplicons using an MPS instrument to generate sequence reads, determining a sequence count for each of the loci by comparing each of the sequence reads to reference sequences, normalizing the sequence count for each of the loci to the sequence count of the positive control locus, and identifying a trait associated with the DNA sample by applying a classification algorithm to the normalized sequence counts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 5, 2015
    Publication date: December 10, 2015
    Inventors: Craig M. Bartling, Mark E. Hester, Esley M. Heizer
  • Publication number: 20150032381
    Abstract: In one illustrative embodiment, an allelotyping method may include selecting a plurality of text strings that each represent a nucleotide sequence that was read by a massively parallel sequencing (MPS) instrument, where the nucleotide sequences represented by the selected plurality of text strings each correspond to a particular locus, comparing the selected plurality of text strings to one another to determine an abundance count for each unique text string included in the selected plurality of text strings, and determining one or more alleles for the particular locus by comparing the abundance count for each unique text string included in the selected plurality of text strings to an abundance threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 29, 2013
    Publication date: January 29, 2015
    Inventors: Brian A. Young, Angela T. Minard-Smith, Esley M. Heizer, JR., Daniel M. Bornman, Mark E. Hester, Boyu Yang