Mass Cytometry (CyTOF) Patents: Who Leads, Where Gaps Are 2026
- One assignee dominates the ranking. The leader holds 26 records against a fifth-place count of 4 and a tenth-place count of 2, out of 27 ranked companies total.
- Filing peaked in 2019 and has not recovered. The trend runs 0 in 2017, peaks at 25 in 2019, sits at 12 by the 2022 midpoint, and shows flat-to-declining activity since.
- Claims cluster in two IPC subclasses. G01N (material analysis) touches all 66 records and H01J (electron/discharge tubes, covering the mass spectrometer hardware) touches 51.5% of them.
What this dataset covers
This landscape draws on 66 published patent records filed between 2015 and 2026 that combine mass cytometry or CyTOF terminology with claim language around metal isotope panels, signal spillover, acquisition rate, sample barcoding or normalization, filtered to IPC classes covering material analysis (G01N), electron/discharge tubes (H01J) and particle sizing (G01N15). It is a narrow, instrument-and-workflow-specific slice of the broader single-cell analysis field, not a survey of all cytometry patents.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the most recent one or two years in the trend understate real filing activity. Family-level counts, used throughout this ranking, are the fairer comparison unit since they neutralise continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 66-record set: activity over time, and where claims land across IPC subclasses. Both use the full record count as the denominator, so subclass shares sum past 100% because a single record can carry several classes.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings were at zero in 2017, rose to a peak of 25 in 2019, and had fallen to 12 by the 2022 midpoint. The pattern reads as flat-to-declining rather than an emerging technology still building momentum — treat the final one to two years as undercounted given publication lag.
IPC subclass composition
G01N covers all 66 records by construction of the search, but H01J (electron and discharge tubes, the mass spectrometer hardware itself) reaches 51.5% of records, making it the largest genuinely differentiating class. G02B (optics, 16.7%) and C07K (peptides/proteins, 13.6%) trail well behind, with C08L, C12M, C12N and H05H each sitting at 6.1%.
Shares are the percentage of the 66 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Mass Cytometry (CyTOF) with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about mass cytometry (cytof) and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this set
WO2023049276A1 — Spatial barcoding for suspension mass cytometry
Applies a spatial barcode to a cellular sample before suspension mass cytometry: a known distribution of sample barcode isotopes is applied so that cells from different locations carry a unique combination or ratio of barcode isotopes, after which cells are dissociated from tissue and processed by suspension mass cytometry. Both enriched isotopes and non-enriched elements are described as viable barcode carriers.Filed by Standard BioTools Canada Inc., published 2023-03-30.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WO2016090356A1 | Mass cytometry imaging | 44 |
| 2 | WO2019246033A1 | High resolution imaging apparatus and method | 33 |
| 3 | US20210118661A1 | High resolution imaging apparatus and method | 29 |
| 4 | US20210333173A1 | High speed modulation sample imaging apparatus and method | 25 |
| 5 | WO2019210233A1 | Reagents and methods for elemental mass spectrometry of biological samples | 17 |
| 6 | US20210239707A1 | Reagents and methods for elemental mass spectrometry of biological samples | 13 |
| 7 | US20210404968A1 | Inductively coupled plasma torch with reverse vortex flow and method of operation | 11 |
| 8 | WO2020055813A1 | High speed modulation sample imaging apparatus and method | 11 |
| 9 | US20190331689A1 | Functionalized metal-labeled beads for mass cytometry | 10 |
| 10 | CN114171189A | 一种基于外周血免疫细胞图谱的肝细胞癌早期筛查系统 | 8 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — read these as signals of influence on subsequent filings, not as a ranking of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for filing strategy
Three signals stand out once the trend and the technology composition are read together: a plateau in overall activity, a hardware-class concentration, and a citation pattern that rewards early imaging and mass-spec claims.
Activity has plateaued, not accelerated
Filing peaked at 25 records in 2019 and had dropped to 12 by the 2022 midpoint. That is consistent with a field where the core instrument architecture is largely claimed and incremental filers are now working around it rather than staking new foundational ground.
Hardware claims outweigh reagent claims
Over half of records touch H01J, the class covering electron and discharge tube technology used in the mass spectrometer detector itself. Reagent- and chemistry-adjacent classes like C07K, C08L and C12N each sit at only 6.1-13.6%, suggesting instrument-side claim space is more heavily worked than assay chemistry.
Imaging-mode filings anchor the field
The most-cited record in this set is a mass cytometry imaging filing, and imaging/high-resolution acquisition apparatus filings occupy several of the top citation slots. Citation weight favours these earlier filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate references, not necessarily because they remain the most commercially active claims.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to mass cytometry (cytof), with the prior art for and against each one.
Who holds the claims
The assignee ranking covers 27 companies and research institutions total, counted by patent family. One organisation holds the majority of records ranked, with a sharp drop-off to a long tail of academic and single-filer entrants.
One commercial assignee dominates the ranking
The top-ranked assignee holds 26 of the records in this ranking, built on the CyTOF instrument platform lineage. Its co-assignee pairings with a named inventor and with its own affiliated Canadian entity are the strongest linked-filing pairs in the dataset, pointing to a tight internal filing group rather than broad industry co-development.
A sharp drop after the leader
Fifth place in the ranking holds 4 records and tenth place holds 2, a steep fall from the leader's 26. University groups and single-institution filers make up most of this tail, several appearing only once in the dataset.
Momentum has stalled across the top filers
Every assignee tracked for recent-year momentum, including the field leader and its academic partners, shows zero filings in the latest year, with several posting a -100% year-over-year change. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, some of this is reporting delay rather than an actual halt, but the multi-year plateau in the trend chart supports a genuine slowdown.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Fluidigm Canada Inc. | 0 | — |
| Standard BioTools Canada Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| University of Ottawa | 0 | -100% |
| Zhejiang Pulanting Health Technology Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Fluidigm Corporation | 0 | — |
| CORKUM PAUL | 0 | — |
| The Governing Council of the University of Toronto | 0 | — |
| DEUT RHEUMA FORSCHUNGSZENT BERLIN | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The trend and ranking data point to specific next questions for R&D and IP teams rather than a single conclusion.
Map the leader's claim boundaries in detail
With one assignee holding the large majority of ranked records, understanding exactly which claim elements it controls versus what remains open is the first practical step before committing engineering resources to any CyTOF-adjacent instrument or workflow.
Explore assignee claims in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches against your own approach
Polymer isotope carriers, bioreactor-integrated prep and plasma-source alternatives all show thin filing density relative to the H01J/G01N core. That thinness is worth verifying against a specific technical approach before treating it as open ground.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaWatch for a filing rebound in the undercounted years
Because publication lag understates 2024-2026 activity, a rebound from the 2022 trough may not yet be visible in this data. Re-checking the trend in six to twelve months will clarify whether the plateau is a genuine slowdown or a reporting artefact.
Track filing trends in EurekaCommon questions about mass cytometry patents
One commercial assignee, tied to the original CyTOF instrument platform lineage, holds the clear majority of the 26 top-ranked records out of 27 companies and institutions in the ranking. The drop-off after the leader is steep: fifth place holds only 4 records and tenth place holds 2. This concentration reflects that the core instrument architecture was largely established by a single group early on, with universities and smaller research institutions filing narrower, more specific improvements around it.
No, filing activity peaked at 25 records in 2019 and had fallen to 12 by the 2022 midpoint, with recent-year momentum for every tracked assignee showing zero filings in the latest year. Some of that apparent stall reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication, which always understates the most recent one to two years. Even allowing for that lag, the multi-year trajectory from 2019 onward points to a plateau rather than continued acceleration.
Material analysis and testing claims under IPC class G01N appear in all 66 records in this dataset by construction of the search, and electron/discharge tube claims under H01J, which cover the mass spectrometer detector hardware, reach 51.5% of records. Optical systems (G02B) and peptide/protein chemistry (C07K) trail well behind at 16.7% and 13.6% respectively. This pattern indicates that claim activity concentrates more heavily on the physical instrument than on reagent or assay chemistry.
The IPC composition shows several branches sitting at only 6.1% of the 66 records, including polymer compositions (C08L), bioreactor and enzyme apparatus (C12M), microorganism and genetic engineering claims (C12N), and plasma and particle accelerator technology (H05H). These sit well below the dense H01J and G01N core and represent areas where fewer claims have been staked, though each should be checked against a specific technical approach rather than assumed to be fully open.
WO2023049276A1, filed by Standard BioTools Canada Inc. and published in March 2023, covers spatial barcoding for suspension mass cytometry: applying a known distribution of sample barcode isotopes to a cellular sample so that cells from different tissue locations carry a unique isotope combination, then dissociating and processing those cells with suspension mass cytometry. The filing explicitly covers both enriched isotopes and non-enriched elements as barcode carriers, which broadens what it can block for downstream spatial barcoding approaches in suspension-based workflows.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.