US Patent Issued to SEIKO EPSON on Dec. 30 for "Magnetic bead reagent" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,509,678, issued on Dec. 30, was assigned to SEIKO EPSON Corp. (Japan).

"Magnetic bead reagent" was invented by Yasunari Ikeda (Shiojiri, Japan), Michio Nakamori (Matsumoto, Japan), Hirofumi Hokari (Chino, Japan) and Masato Hanamura (Shiojiri, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A magnetic bead reagent contains: a magnetic bead containing a Fe-based metal soft magnetic particle and a silica film that has an average thickness of 20 nm or more and that covers the Fe-based metal soft magnetic particle; a surfactant; and a dispersion medium in which the magnetic bead is dispersed. The surfactant may be a nonionic surfactant."

The patent was...