SANTA FE SPRINGS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The first patent for a digital barcode was issued to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver in 1949. Decades later, in 1974, the first scanner for reading digital barcodes was installed at a Marsh's supermarket in Troy, Ohio. Digital Barcodes soon became the industry standard and the most widely used method for identifying information on millions of products. Applied BioCode today announced that the United Stated Patent and Trademark Office has granted US Patent #9,255,922 (February 9, 2016), describing the material and method of a digital barcode, which is 1,000 times smaller than the conventional barcodes, for simultaneously identifying thousands of bacteria, viruses, pathogens, or biomarkers. This patented Barcoded Magnetic Bead allows the 4,096 available barcodes to be easily scanned and accurately identified with no ambiguity.
Applied BioCode develops biopolymer-base micrometer scale barcoded magnetic beads, which not only have great physical properties (density, rigidity, temperature, pressure, shelf-life stability) and chemical properties (pH stability, surface chemistry, bio-functionalities), but also have excellent biological compatibility (nucleic acids, proteins, buffers, and long term stability) for biological applications. “The new patent expands our four earlier granted patents including the optical scanner that is responsible for decoding the digital barcode and identifying each analyte target in the sample,” said Winston Ho, Ph.D., President of Applied BioCode. “These patents solidify our intellectual property portfolio by further protecting our encoded polymer bead technology and providing our products with long term market value.”
Applied BioCode is currently developing an 18-plex Gastrointestinal Pathogen Panel for the most common pathogens including viruses, bacteria and parasites that cause infectious diarrhea. The 18-Plex GI Pathogen Panel will be run on the BioCode MDx 3000 Molecular Diagnostic System. This system combines the amplification, hybridization, and detection steps with the capability to run up to 188 samples in an 8-hour shift, and up to three different multiplexed panels simultaneously. The multiplexed panels are run in a low cost, high throughput 96 well microplate format. The automation of these steps into a single system will decrease reagent costs, reduce hands on time, and minimize the potential risk of sample contamination. Submission to FDA is expected later this year.
About Applied BioCode:
Applied BioCode, Inc. develops, manufactures and markets components and products for the Research Testing market. The digital Barcoded Magnetic Bead technology enables products for customers in the Laboratory Diagnostics, Life Science Research, Ag-Bio, Food Safety Testing, Environmental Testing, and Bio-Defense markets. To date, six companies have licensed Applied BioCode’s technology for various market applications.
