SRU Biosystems, a leader in highly sensitive label-free detection technologies, announced the issuance of a Notice of Allowance from the US Patent Office for claims on a fundamental patent application, US Patent Application No. 11/635,934, for performing cellular assays on optical label-free biosensors. The allowed material includes claims directed to methods for measuring changes in the following: cell growth, cell morphology, cell adhesion, cell migration, cell proliferation, cell death, microtubule structure, microfilament structure, granule exocytosis, respiratory burst, cell differentiation, or a combination thereof, on colorimetric resonant reflectance optical biosensors.

“SRU has developed a sweeping portfolio of over 50 US patents and dozens of issued European patents covering our technology,” said Richard W Wagner, president and CEO of SRU Biosystems. “The issuance of this patent will represent a fundamental cornerstone of our cellular assay portfolio, based on insightful work in the early days of the company’s founding. The claims are broad and cover methods of detection of physiological changes in cells that happen in real time on optical label-free biosensors. This forms the basis for cell-based applications using BIND technology, including cell growth, cell adhesion, stem cell biology, GPCR assays, ion channel assays, chemotaxis assays, cytotoxicity monitoring, and cellular invasion applications.”

Dr Wagner continued, “During the past year, numerous additional patents have issued that cover our instruments, biosensor manufacturing, and microplate biosensors, including our recently introduced BIND SCANNER with its new biosensor design. The issuance of these broad claims continues to strengthen our vast position in this field.”

The Notice of Allowance and recently issued patents are related to the SRU BIND technology, which includes a range of optical biosensor products and instrumentation, such as the Cartridge Reader (for 16-well biosensors), the BIND Readers, including the first-in-class 96/384/1536-well BIND SCREENER, and the recently introduced, BIND SCANNER which is the first label-free instrument for monitoring individual cells, including primary and stem cell applications.

SRU Biosystems is a life science company developing novel technologies for rapidly analyzing the interactions of large genomic, protein, peptide, antibody or small molecule compound libraries against a wide range of biochemical and cellular targets.