BioNanomatrix has announced the issuance of a patent for a key element of the company's whole genome analyzer.
The patent covers a novel technique for the integration of nanofluidic channels with sample delivery systems, enabling single molecules of DNA, RNA or other proteins to be separated out from standard laboratory samples for direct imaging and analysis. The technology makes possible the isolation and linearization of intact multi-megabase DNA in a standardized format for molecule-by-molecule gene haplotyping, mapping and sequencing applications.
"The issuance of this fundamental broad patent is a major milestone for BioNanomatrix," said Dr. Han Cao, the company's chief scientific officer. "Single molecule analysis of DNA and other proteins is central to the unprecedented capabilities of our whole genome analytic platform. This new patent covers our unique ability to integrate nanofluidic channels into our sample delivery systems, enabling our NANOANALYZER(R) system to rapidly and efficiently separate out genomic length DNA from conventional laboratory samples and direct it into nanoscale channels for live, continuous molecule- by-molecule analysis."
Single molecule analysis of intact native DNA has been limited by the difficulty of stretching out and handling these long molecules. To address this issue, a Princeton University research team, including Dr. Cao, developed a simple approach that allows the construction of hundreds of thousands of enclosed, parallel nanofluidic channels on a single surface, using a gradient structured interface to gradually guide the biologically active molecules into the nanoscale channels. This simple technique is ideally suited for multiplexed parallel processing for applications from genotoxicity analyses to DNA sequencing.