Licensing Program

Public Health Research Institute Properties, Inc. (PHRI) offers non-exclusive worldwide licenses for the molecular beacons technology in a variety of fields and for a variety of uses. A license under PHRI's patents includes rights to seven different patents and patent applications and further improvements to the technology. These patents can be viewed and printed. Issued claims describe molecular beacon probes, kits, and assays. Patents that cover additional aspects of molecular beacons technology are pending. Foreign counterparts are issued or pending in Australia, Canada, China, Europe and Japan. Licensing income received by PHRI is used to support further research. Also, a license creates a collaborative relationship with the laboratory of Drs. Fred Russell Kramer, Sanjay Tyagi, and Salvatore Marras, the inventors of the technology.

For more information on the molecular beacons licensing program, please contact Dr. Fred Russell Kramer (fred.kramer@umdnj.edu; 1-973-854-3370.)

Products and Assays that Utilize Molecular Beacons Technology

Custom molecular beacon probes
Assay kits
Performance of assays for a fee
Performance of assays for internal quality control
Assay instruments

Fields of Use for Molecular Beacons Technology

Human in vitro diagnostics
a. Testing for infectious agents
b. Genetic testing
c. Oncology
Research
GMO testing
Food testing
Veterinary diagnostics
Hybrid seed production
Agricultural infectious agents
Forensics
Paternity testing
High-density probe arrays
Industrial microbiology
Blood products quality control
Environmental pathogens

The fields of use are not limited to this list. New applications and fields for molecular beacons arise frequently.

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Recent Publications from Our Group

In the November 23, 2011 issue of Cell, using our unique single-molecule imaging approach, we describe circumstances under which splicing is uncoupled from transcription. An interview conducted by Cell's editorial staff with Sanjay Tyagi about this work can be listened to at www.cell.com/../paperclip.mp3

Vargas DY, Shah K, Batish M, Levandoski M, Sinha S, Marras SAE, Schedl P, Tyagi S (2011) Single-molecule imaging of transcriptionally coupled and uncoupled splicing Cell 147, 1054-1065.

We describe a protocol for a novel method that utilizes single labeled Fluorescent In-situ Hybridization probes to image individual mRNA molecules

Batish M, Raj A, and Tyagi S (2011) Single Molecule Imaging of RNA In Situ. Methods in Molecular Biology 714, 3-11.

In collaboration with Diana Bratu and Irina Catrina at Hunter College in New York City, we published on the design parameters and applications of Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) based molecular beacon probes to detect RNA in live cells

Bratu DP, Catrina IE, and Marras SAE (2011) Tiny molecular beacons for in vivo mRNA detection. Methods in Molecular Biology 714, 141-157.