Microfluidic Systems awarded series of patents

Microfluidic Systems (MFSI), a privately-held company, announced today that it has been awarded a series of patents covering both the components and integrated systems that perform fully automated sample collection through identification of air-borne pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and toxins. Patent number 7,618,588 covers a low-cost, flow-through, thermal cycling component of the integrated system for amplification of the target organisms via the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) or other similar methods. This is a key step in highly specific organism identification. Patent number 7,633,606 covers the fully integrated system which includes sample collection, agent triggering, sample processing, amplification, and organism identification, as well as toxin protein detection. Within the automated integrated system are key components and methodologies that MFSI has also patented. Several additional patents of different versions of the integrated system have also been allowed.

"MFSI continues to build its intellectual property foundation and is solidifying its position in the application of its technologies for biological agent detection and identification," commented M. Allen Northrup Ph.D, Founder and CEO. "We are very pleased that our efforts to provide critical biological detection capabilities to a variety of applications are fruitful. Automation of the rapid identification of disease-causing environmental pathogens continues to grow as a critical need for diagnosis and treatment around the world," he added.