US Patent Issued to Northwestern University on May 19 for "Devices and methods for rapid sample processing and analysis" (Illinois Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,629,688, issued on May 19, was assigned to Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.).

"Devices and methods for rapid sample processing and analysis" was invented by Sally Maureen Mcfall (Evanston, Ill.), David M. Kelso (Wilmette, Ill.), Jennifer Lynn Reed (Chicago) and Tom Westberg (Gurnee, Ill.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided herein are devices and methods for the rapid processing and analysis of samples. In particular, a small-volume sample (e.g., nucleic acid sample) is exposed to (e.g., contacted with) different temperature zones within a device to process (e.g., amplify) and/or analyze (e.g., quantitate) the sample in an assay...