Dec. 18, 2003 — Cepheid Inc. has been issued a U.S. patent that covers the design of a sample preparation cartridge containing a microfluidic chip for extracting and purifying multiple DNA targets simultaneously, according to a news release.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based firm said the technology is one of the first to enable sample preparation on a silicon chip. Cepheid’s chief technology officer Kurt Petersen said in the release that the decreasing cost of MEMS manufacturing makes it possible to integrate the technology in a future product.