Synthetic molecular tags for supply chain tracking

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2023125457-A1
Application number	US-202117511454-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 26, 2021
Priority date	Oct 26, 2021
Publication date	Apr 27, 2023
Grant date	—

Abstract

Synthetic molecular tags are placed on an item at various points in a supply chain to create a molecular record of movement through the supply chain. Associations between each unique synthetic molecular tag and individual locations in the supply chain are stored in an electronic record which may be maintained in the cloud. The synthetic molecular tags are collected from the item and sequenced to determine movement of the item through the supply chain by reference to the electronic record. The synthetic molecular tags can be used for identifying recalled items based on locations in the supply chain associated with a recall. The synthetic molecular tags may be polynucleotides such as deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA). The item may be any type of item including food.

First claim

1 . A method for tracking movement of an item through a supply chain comprising:
adding a first synthetic molecular tag to the item at a first site in a supply chain; adding a second synthetic molecular tag with a different sequence than the first synthetic molecular tag to the item at a second site in the supply chain; collecting the first synthetic molecular tag and the second synthetic molecular tag from the item; sequencing the first synthetic molecular tag and the second synthetic molecular tag collected from the item to generate a first tag sequence and a second tag sequence; comparing the first tag sequence and the second tag sequence to an electronic record containing a first reference sequence associated with a description of the first site in the supply chain and a second reference sequence associated with a description of the second site in the supply chain; and determining that the item was at the first site in the supply chain and at the second site in the supply chain based on the electronic record.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
synthesizing a plurality of copies of the first synthetic molecular tag and a plurality of copies of the second synthetic molecular tag; registering, in the electronic record, an association between at least a portion of a reference sequence of the first synthetic molecular tag and a description of the first site in the supply chain and an association between at least a portion of the reference sequence of the second synthetic molecular tag and a description of the second site in the supply chain; and distributing the plurality of copies of the first synthetic molecular tag to the first site in the supply chain and the plurality of copies of the second synthetic molecular tag to the second site in the supply chain.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first synthetic molecular tag and the second synthetic molecular tag are polynucleotides.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the first synthetic molecular tag and the second synthetic molecular tag comprise the same forward and reverse primer binding sites.

5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the first tag sequence is not identical to any reference sequence contained in the electronic record and determining that the item was at the first site in the supply chain comprises:
determining that the first tag sequence is more similar to the first reference sequence than to any other reference sequence in the electronic record.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a first synthetic molecular tag encodes a date and further comprising determining a freshness of the item based on the date.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein adding the first synthetic molecular tag to the item comprises contacting a surface of the item with a liquid solution containing the first synthetic molecular tag or wherein the item is liquid and wherein adding the first synthetic molecular tag to the item comprises placing the first synthetic molecular tag in the item.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein sequencing the first synthetic molecular tag and the second synthetic molecular tag comprises a first toehold-mediated strand-displacement reaction with the first synthetic molecular tag and a second toehold-mediated strand-displacement reaction with the second synthetic molecular tag.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the electronic record is maintained on one or more network-accessible computing devices at one or more locations physically distant from the first site and from the second site.

10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
displaying on a user interface of a computing device physically proximate to the item a list or map showing the first site in the supply chain and the second site in the supply chain.

11 . A method of identifying a recalled item comprising:
collecting from an item a plurality of synthetic molecular tags each representing a different site in a supply chain; sequencing the plurality of synthetic molecular tags to generate tag sequences; determining, by comparison to an electronic record, that at least one of the plurality of synthetic molecular tags is associated with a site in the supply chain linked to a product recall; and identifying the item as a recalled item.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
synthesizing a plurality of copies of each of the plurality of synthetic molecular tags; registering, in the electronic record, associations between reference sequences for individual ones of the plurality of synthetic molecular tags and descriptions of sites in the supply chain; distributing the plurality of copies of each of the plurality of synthetic molecular tags to the respective sites in the supply chain with which the individual ones of the plurality of synthetic molecular tags are associated with in the electronic record; and adding to the item, at each site in the supply chain, the respective synthetic molecular tag associated with that site in the supply chain.

13 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising recording in the electronic record an indication that the site in the supply chain is linked to a product recall.

14 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising displaying on a user interface of a computing device located physically proximate to the item an indication that the item is the recalled item.

15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the synthetic molecular tags are polynucleotides.

16 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the item is a food item and the synthetic molecular tags are edible.

17 . An item labeled with a plurality of synthetic molecular tags added to the item as the item moved through sites in a supply chain, each synthetic molecular tag uniquely associated in an electronic record with a respective one of the sites in the supply chain.

18 . The item of claim 17 , wherein the item is a food item and the synthetic molecular tags are polynucleotides.

19 . The item of claim 18 , wherein at least a portion of a sequence of each of the polynucleotides are uniquely associated in the electronic record with a description of one of the sites in supply chain.

20 . The item of claim 18 , wherein each of the polynucleotides have the same forward and reverse primer binding sites.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Chen Yuan-Jyue
• Strauss Karin
• Nguyen Bichlien Hoang
• Lester Jonathan Bernard
• Srinivasan Hari Krishnan
• Singh Upendra
• Kumar Peeyush
• Chandra Ranveer
• Badam Anirudh
• Bassani Michael Mcnab

Classifications

• G06Q10/0833 Primary

  Tracking · CPC title

• G06N3/123

  DNA computing · CPC title

• G06K7/143

  Glyph-codes · CPC title

• G06Q10/087

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G16B30/00

  ICT specially adapted for sequence analysis involving nucleotides or amino acids · CPC title