ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,458,016, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to Regents of the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) and Smithsonian Institution (Washington).

"High throughput system for production and vitrification of biomaterials in cryoprotectant droplets" was invented by Nikolas Zuchowicz (Kaneohe, Hawaii), Mary Hagedorn (Kaneohe, Hawaii), Jonathan Daly (Kaneohe, Hawaii), Li Zhan (St. Paul, Minn.), Kanav Khosla (Minneapolis) and John Bischof (St. Paul, Minn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods and vitrification systems for biological samples are provided. The vitrification system has a rotatable cryowheel (210) with a facing surface (220). Droplets of ...