Labcyte has 38 US patents issued, including the Deerac™ magnetic feedback-controlled (MFC) valve technology licensed from Trinity College, Dublin. International patents have issued in Europe, Japan and other nations, and many applications remain pending. The patents and pending applications include MFC technology and acoustic droplet ejection acoustic (ADE) technologies developed at Labcyte to support miniaturization (de-ionization and drop coalescence), applications (for example, high-throughput screening, biomolecular crystallization, arraying, imaging mass spectrometry, sample loading, drug deposition and biohazardous sample manipulation within sealed containers) compound management (MicroClime® environmental lids, acoustic auditing of small volumes, restoration of sample composition), particle manufacturing and cell transfer/sorting.U.S. Patents
U.S. 7,405,072 issued July 29,2008 (see press release) applied the unique advantages of acoustic droplet ejection to transfer fluids within a sealed container, free from any physical contact for the safe transfer and assay of infectious or dangerous materials. This patent also covers the acoustic monitoring of such a fluid for specific physical parameters.
U.S. 7,405,395 issued July, 2008 (see press release) describes the acoustic transfer of fluid droplets into openings less than 300 microns in diameter. This makes it possible to shoot droplets through the eye of a needle or into the lumen of a capillary..
U.S.6,416,164 issued in July, 2002 (see press release) claims a device and method for dispensing droplets using acoustic energy generated by an external source and focused with a lens having a relatively large "F-number”. The use of such lenses allows for precise dispensing of droplets from containers of varying size and shape, including "tall" containers in which the depth of the fluid can be significantly greater than the width of the container. Examples of such containers include commercial microplates, which are commonly used in high-throughput screening, diagnostics and life science research.
U.S. 6,548,308 issued in April, 2003 (see press release) claims the ejection of a droplet from a reservoir containing two immiscible fluids, such as oil and water. This technology can be applied to the formation of micelles, small solid particles and assay miniaturization. Using a non-volatile fluid as one of the immiscible fluids can provide evaporation control for a volatile immiscible fluid by forming a barrier between the volatile liquid and the atmosphere.
U.S. 6,596,206, U.S. 6,603,118, U.S. 6,610,223, U.S. 6,612,686, issued in July, August and September, 2003 (see press release).
U.S. 6,642,061 issued in November, 2003 (see press release) claims applications of droplets formed with focused acoustics from a reservoir containing two immiscible fluids.
U. S. 6,666,541 issued in December, 2003 (see press release) claims an acoustic ejection device for the generation of drops from more than one reservoir.
U. S. 6,707,038 and U. S. 6,710,335 issued in March, 2004 (see press release) describes the use of acoustic drop ejection for sample preparation and analysis, including mass spectrometry.
U. S. 6,746,104 issued in June, 2004 (see press release) describes application of acoustic drop ejection to the formation of high-density arrays on porous surfaces.
U.S. 6,808,934 and U.S. 6,809,315 patents issued October 26, 2004
U.S. 6,802,593 issued October 27, 2004 (see press release) for rapidly transferring fluids from a multi-well plate with acoustic energy.
U.S. 6,849,423 issued February 1, 2005 (see press release) for the rapid and gentle transfer of cells and particles, including beads, with acoustic energy.
U.S. 6,855,925 issued February 15, 2005 (see press release) describes the deposition of droplets of low volatility fluids onto surfaces as a precursor to analyses.
U.S. Patent 6,869,551 (see press release) discloses the use of focused acoustic energy to create particles with a very narrow size distribution.
U.S. Patent 6,893, 836 (see press release) describes the use of focused acoustic energy to eject live cells suspended in a fluid to make patterns of cells on surfaces.
U.S. Patent 6,893,115 (see press release) discloses the use of frequency and acoustic pulse time adjustments to maintain consistent droplet size when solvent composition varies.
U.S. Patent 6,916,083 (see press release) discloses how to control the flow of a coupling fluid to provide efficient transfer of acoustic energy into a multi-well plate.
U.S. Patent 6,932,097 (see press release) discloses how to use acoustics to monitor the composition and volume of a fluid and maintain those parameters via active fluid supplementation.
U.S. Patent 6,938,995 (see press release) covers the repositioning and refocusing of the transducer to ensure that fluid is efficiently ejected from multiplereservoirs, i.e., the wells of a microplate even when the volumes of the reservoirs differ.
U.S. Patent 6,938,987 (see press release) describes methods for acoustically assessing the contents of multiple wells in a microplate or other reservoirs in an array with the potential for more rapid assessment of microplate contents.
U.S. Patent 6,991,917 (see press release) describes spatial control of the acoustic delivery of cells from a carrier fluid. The technique can distribute cell-containing droplets to form an array of living cells for numerous biological applications.
U.S. Patent 7,070,260 (see press release) describes the reduction of electrostatic charge to ensure proper volume transfer and droplet trajectory.
U.S. Patent 7,090,333 (see press release) describes the use of acoustic droplet ejection for the preparation of microarrays of proteins and peptides.
U.S. 7,185,969 (see press release) patent issued March 5, 2007
European Patents
European Patent EP 1337325 covers many aspects of acoustic droplet ejection (ADE), describing the use of ADE to access fluids in multiple reservoirs such as those of multi-well microplates.
Japanese Patents
Japanese Patent 4189964 describes the ‘touchless’ ejection of fluids using acoustic energy. This patent covers the fundamental technology used in the Labcyte Echo liquid handlers and the Portrait spotters.