US Patent Issued to Microsoft Technology Licensing on July 1 for "Spatially addressable control of polymerase activity" (Washington Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,344,876, issued on July 1, was assigned to Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Redmond, Wash.).

"Spatially addressable control of polymerase activity" was invented by Bichlien Hoang Nguyen (Seattle) and Jake Smith (Seattle).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Multiple polynucleotides having different, arbitrary sequences are synthesized on the surface of an array by spatial control of polymerase activity. The polymerase is a template-independent polymerase such as terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT). Spatial control of polymerase activity is implemented by localized changes in redox-pH conditions. A single species of nucleotide is added...