Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Aurora Discovery, Incorporated

USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Aurora Biosciences Corporation

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (san Diego) LLC

Minh Vuong

Alec Tate Harootunian

James Edward Sinclair

Javier Humberto Flores

Peter J Coassin

Philip Emanuel Salzmann

Roger Y Tsien

Andrew A Pham

B Albert Griffin

Michael Paul Emery

Todd N Bennett

Ashvani Singh

Paul A Negulescu

Fred F VanGoor

Brandon J Wiedemeier

Nathan Todd Miller

Bret R Thomson

Brian Grot

Trang Nguyen

Matthew Charles Wallace

Walter D Niles

Daniel Hale

Huy Nguyen

Tuong Phan

Steve Rodems

Di Bian

Jeff Stack

Ada Silos-Santiago

Kevin A Merhoff

Jason S Bench

Bryan B Bui-Tuong

A retrofit kit retrofits a buoy to provide dynamic control of a freeboard of the retrofitted buoy. The retrofit kit includes buoyancy chambers, an air reservoir, and a valve arrangement. A method for retrofitting a buoy retrofits a buoy to provide dynamic control of a freeboard of the retrofitted buoy. The buoyancy chambers surrounding a vertical axis of the buoy with a center of mass of the buoy disposed on the vertical axis below the buoyancy chambers. The buoyancy chambers provide a variable buoyancy ranging from a minimum buoyancy to a maximum buoyancy. The air reservoir inflates of the buoyancy chambers. The valve arrangement dynamically sets the freeboard of the buoy upon inflation and deflation of the buoyancy chambers for varying the variable buoyancy between the minimum buoyancy and the maximum buoyancy.

Retrofitting a buoy to provide dynamic control of a freeboard of the buoy

Methods and devices for inline sampling of a bulk material, such as a powder, are provided. The material's bulk density can be determined from samples drawn using methods and devices described herein. One embodiment of a method of sampling a material allows the material to flow through a sampling compartment, closes off the flow of material below the sampling compartment, builds up a column of material through the sampling compartment, shifts the sampling compartment to remove a slice of material in the column, and places the slice of material into a sample container. A device for sampling a material is provided in another embodiment. The device includes an inlet, an outlet aligned with the inlet, and a sample collector. The sample collector can include at least one through hole and be configured to move such that the at least one through hole can be moved into and out of alignment with the inlet and the outlet.

Systems and methods for inline sampling

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for detecting motion of an object, such as the paw of rat. A tag comprising an inductive element and a capacitive element may be attached to the object and the motion detected by monitoring the affect of the tag on a time-varying magnetic field.

Wireless detection of motion

A device for characterizing the biological properties of cells can include a plurality of dual-compartment assay chambers wherein the compartments of each chamber are separated by a cell layer across which ions can flow. The biological properties of the cell layer in the presence or absence of experimental compounds can be determined by measuring an electrical gradient across the layer. A individual dual-compartment chamber of this type may be referred to as an 'Ussing chamber.'

Multiwell assay apparatus and method for determining biological activity of compounds

An air displacement pipetter comprises a guidance sleeve positioned within a hole in a cylinder block and a piston within a portion of the guidance sleeve a piston penetrating the cylinder block, a spring energized seal disposed within the cylinder block, a seal capture plate contacting the spring energized seal, a carrier plate, a pipette tip attached to the carrier plate, and a manifold plate between said carrier plate and said cylinder block.

Air displacement pipetter

A liquid level sensor comprises a plurality of electrodes arranged in a defined relationship with respect to a container filling trajectory, a signal generator coupled to one or more of the plurality of electrodes, a signal receiver coupled to one or more of the plurality of electrodes, and a sensing circuit coupled to at least one of the signal generator and signal receiver. The sensing circuit is configured to produce an output indicative of electrical resistance between at least one pair of the plurality of electrodes. The sensing circuit may be associated with the signal receiver and/or with the signal generator.

Method for sensing levels of conductive liquids

The invention is an automated multiple-purpose, integrated laboratory system comprising interchangeable modular elements for the construction and measurement of biological assays. The functions of the modular elements may include multiwell platform handling, chemical reagent or cell management, volumetric transfer of liquids for assay construction or for recovery of reaction products for analysis, incubation under controlled environmental conditions, measurement of spectrometric signals originating from the assays, processing and analysis of the resulting spectrometric data, and other functions. The modular elements are arranged around a number of robotic elements that deliver plates to different modular elements, transfer plates to groups of modules served by a different robotic element, or other actions necessary in plate handling. Liquid transfer to and from multiwell platforms, necessary for assay construction or for the initiation of physiological events in cells, is partitioned among different modules specialized for transferring nanoliter or smaller volume quantities of chemical concentrates, or microliter quantities of assay reagents, cells, media and other assay constituents. Applications of this invention include the quantitation and analysis of the expression of multiple genes in cells, measurement of multi-gene expression kinetics, analysis of activation or suppression of multiple signal transduction pathways, screening chemical compounds for modulatory effects on multi-gene expression or on signal transduction pathways or on other biochemical networks of cells, or other analytical biological or biochemical assays.

Automated laboratory for high-throughput biological assays and RNA interference

Sensor for levels of conductive liquids

Multiwell plate assembly for use in high throughput assays

The invention provides for a detector assembly, fiber assembly and screening system for optical measurements.

Detector and screening device for ion channels

The present invention is relates to an optical fiber assembly which may be used in an optical detection system. The optical fiber assembly may comprise a trifurcated cable and a ball lens in optical communication with the trifurcated cable. The trifurcated cable may comprise an excitation bundle, a first emission bundle for receiving light and a second emission bundle for receiving light.

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Minh Vuong