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Many potential nucleic acid therapeutics have not transitioned from the research laboratory to clinical application in large part because delivery technologies for these therapies are not effective. Most nucleic acid delivery technologies are lipid-based or positively charged and require chemical or physical conjugation with the nucleic acid. These delivery systems are often therapeutically unacceptable due to toxicity or immune system reactivity.

This software invention pertains to Joint Richardson-Lucy (RL) deconvolution methods used to combine multiple images of an object into a single image for improving resolution in modern fluorescence microscopy. RL deconvolution merges images with very different point spread functions, such as in multi-view light-sheet microscopes, while preserving the best resolution information present in each image.

This technology relates to the field of radioactive, isotopically-labeled calcofluor derivatives and uses of such compounds to detect a broad spectrum of filamentous fungi including pathogenic species such as Aspergillus and Mucorales, by diagnostic imaging methods such as positron emission tomography (PET) scanning.

The invention pertains to a system and method for distinguishing stimulated emissions as a means of enhancing signal strength of fluorescent markers in fluorescence microscopy applications. The system is arranged such that an excitation beam (e.g., laser beam) illuminates a sample along some axis exciting the fluorescent markers used in the sample. A second light beam, a stimulation beam, illuminates the sample along another axis, possibly the same as that of the excitation beam.

This technology is an ultra-sensitive colorimetric assay, based on an enzyme-catalyzed gold nanoparticle growth process, for detection of disease-associated proteins (biomarkers) and disease diagnosis. Current detection methods, such as ELISA immunoassays, measure concentrations above 0.1 ng/mL in a sample. PCR, although more sensitive than ELISA, requires expensive and specialized equipment and reagents, skilled labor, and complex analysis techniques. This assay detects fg/mL to pg/mL concentrations, allowing detection and diagnosis in the earliest stage of disease or infection.

The octopod-shaped iron oxide nanoparticles of this technology significantly enhance contrast in MRI imaging compared to spherical superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle T₂ contrast agents. These octopod iron oxide nanoparticles show a transverse relaxivity that is over five times greater than comparable spherical agents. Because the unique octopod shape creates a greater effective radius than spherical agents, but maintains similar magnetization properties, the relaxation rate is improved. The improved relaxation rate greatly enhances the contrast of images.

Available for licensing and commercial development as imaging agents for positron emission tomography of cancer are boramino acid compounds. The inventors showed that mimetics created by substituting the carboxylate group (-COO^-) of an amino acid with trifluoroborate (-BF_3^-) are metabolically stable and allow for the use of fluorene-18 (¹⁸F) as the radiolabel.

The invention is an imaging agent and method of use for imaging blood pools and the lymphatic system. The imaging agent binds with high affinity to serum albumin, the most abundant serum protein, and can be tagged with several isotopes making it suitable for magnetic resonance imaging or positron emission tomographic imaging. To date, only very few blood-pool tracers have been introduced for positron emission tomography. The existing ones have short half-lives (20.4 min for ¹¹C and 2.05 min for ¹⁵O) and thus can only be used in centers with an in-house cyclotron.

This invention presents a high throughput, multi-analyte microfluidic chip device. This device can be used for the detection and characterization of proteins, immuno-affinity assays as well as analyte detection in biological samples or other media. The sub-microliter volumes for use make this device applicable where biological samples are rare and difficult to obtain.

The device consists of a series of channels that are connected via communication ports for sample flow. The channels can be individually loaded with detection reagents via portals at their ends.

Available for licensing are methods and devices for selectively delivering therapeutic substances to specific histological or microanatomical areas of organs (e.g., introduction of the therapeutic substance into a hollow organ space such as the hepatobiliary duct or the gallbladder lumen) at a controlled pressure, volume and/or rate which allows the substance to reach a predetermined cellular layer.