ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,629,641, issued on May 19, was assigned to EMD MILLIPORE Corp. (Burlington, Mass.).

"Single use flexible sparger" was invented by Marisa Maher (Somerville, Mass.), Stefano Berti Perez (Boston), Anne Hansen (North Reading, Mass.), Noah Rhein (Maynard, Mass.), Amy Mei (Medford, Mass.), Sualyneth Galarza (Brighton, Mass.), John Caulmare (Beverly, Mass.), Joseph W. Muldoon (Berlin, Mass.) and Amy Wood (Concord, Mass.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A multi-layered flexible sparger (100) that has a bottom film layer (102), a middle film layer (106), and a top film layer (110); a first inner mesh (104) disposed between the bottom film layer and ...