Elizabeth, New Jersey Patent of the Year – 2024/2025
GenNext Technologies Inc. has been awarded the 2024/2025 Patent of the Year for innovation in protein analysis. Their invention, detailed in U.S. Patent No. 12263477, titled ‘Opto-fluidic array for radical protein foot-printing’, introduces a new platform for mapping protein structures with greater speed and accuracy.
This breakthrough combines light-based control and microfluidics to expose proteins to radicals in a highly controlled environment. The system enables scientists to pinpoint how proteins fold, interact, or change in response to drugs or environmental conditions.
Unlike traditional methods, which can be slow and imprecise, the opto-fluidic array uses focused light to generate hydroxyl radicals that quickly modify proteins at specific locations. These changes reveal structural details critical to understanding disease pathways or developing new therapies.
The compact array can process multiple samples at once, making it well-suited for both academic research and commercial drug development. By simplifying and accelerating structural analysis, the technology lowers costs and shortens discovery timelines.
GenNext Technologies’ invention offers a major advance for structural biology, helping researchers unlock deeper insights into protein function. With this tool, scientists can more easily study proteins in their native environments, leading to better diagnostics, treatments, and biomolecular engineering.