Articles

Nanogen, Inc. (San Diego), which recently began marketing a "lab-on-a-chip" workstation for automated DNA analysis, has received patent protection for a technology that uses a collection electrode to concentrate charged biological materials. The patent, U.S. 6,099, 803, is the eighteenth the company has received relating to its electronic microarray technology.

According to the company, the new patent is significant because it "combines electronic concentration, focusing, transport and subsequent analysis of a biological sample on an integrated device." The devices and methods described in the patent, Nanogen adds, permit analysis of a biological sample by first utilizing a collection electrode to concentrate charged biological materials. Once the biological materials are concentrated on the collection electrode, other electrodes may be employed to focus and transport the materials to an array of microlocations.

In an explanation of how the new technology might be applied, James P. O'Connell, Nanogen's vice president of science & technology, notes that large collector electrodes can now be positioned in proximity to the array of test electrodes, permitting the user to concentrate the sample DNA before analysis on Nanogen's electronic microarrays. Focusing electrodes are then employed to move the concentrated DNA to selected locations on the chip.

Elizabeth Mather, one of the inventors of the new Nanogen system, is quoted in a company press release as predicting that the ability to concentrate and move sample DNA may lead to "far more sensitive tests." In particular, she adds, the ability to manipulate DNA sequences electronically may aid in the "improved selection of target sequences from complex DNA samples."

For more information, contact Nanogen at 858-410-4600.

Edited by Gordon Graff
Managing Editor, Laboratory Network.com

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