The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 09, 2003
Filed:
May. 10, 2001
David F Nellis, Frederick, MD (US);
Stephanie Nilsen, Frederick, MD (US);
Invitrogen Corporation, Carlsbad, CA (US);
Abstract
A system, method and computer program product is provided for processing images of an electrophoretic separation medium to determine the unit activity of an enzyme. A test aliquot, comprising a macromolecule (such as, DNA, RNA, protein, peptide or the like) and diluted enzyme concentration, is distributed in the separation medium. The enzyme concentration acts as a catalysis to cleave the macromolecule into distinct fragments during electrophoresis. A set of intensity data profiles are produced from images of the fragments. The profiles are stacked and vertically aligned to designate and assign the fragments to their respective lanes. A group of partial bands and final bands are selected from the fragments. Peak integrations are implemented to measure the intensity of the partial and final bands. A series of intensity ratios are computed from the peak integrations. The intensity ratios are normalized and plotted to produce a trend. A threshold crossing value is derived from the effective dilution factor corresponding to a point at which the trend crosses a threshold crossing level. The threshold crossing value is used to determine a calibration factor. The calibration factor used to determine a reported unit call.