Patent 7842498 was granted and assigned to Bio-Rad Laboratories on November, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The invention provides a water-swellable hydrophobic hydrogel and analytical devices incorporating the hydrogel of the invention. Also provided are methods of using the hydrogel to prepare the analytical devices and methods of using the analytical devices to detect, quantitate and discriminate between analytes in a sample. Moreover, the invention provides kits that include components of a hydrogel and instructions for making a chip with a hydrophobic surface.