Carl Zeiss MicroImaging, a leading provider of microscopy solutions, announces that the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted Dr. Eric Betzig and Dr. Harald Hess an additional patent for their invention of superresolution localization microscopy. In 2007, Carl Zeiss received the exclusive rights to market this technology.
U.S. Patent 7,864,314, published January 4, 2011, expands the patent protection to systems and methods utilizing separation by photo-optical transformation of molecules between different energy states. For example, only a few molecules can be activated from a dark state and then localized, or almost all molecules can be transformed into a dark state and the few remaining ones are localized.
Together with the previously issued patents (U.S. 7,626,694, U.S. 7,828,695, U.S. 7,626,703 and U.S. 7,782,457), substantial systems and methods of superresolution microscopy are now protected. These methods are based on the separation and localization of molecules to achieve resolution beyond the Abbe resolution limit. This technology expands the ways in which classical dyes can be used for applications in superresolution microscopy.
This recent patent further confirms the innovative power of Dr. Eric Betzig and Dr. Harald Hess and further strengthens the position of Carl Zeiss MicroImaging in the field of superresolution.
Dr. Betzig and Dr. Hess add, "We are pleased that the patent office has recognized the breadth of our concept, including how different classes of optical labels can be used to achieve the condition for superresolution imaging with localization microscopy."