ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 10 -- 3M Innovative Properties, St. Paul, Minnesota, has been assigned a patent (9,909,969) developed by three co-inventors for "systems and methods for detecting an analyte of interest in a sample using microstructured surfaces." The co-inventors are Kurt J. Halverson, Lake Elmo, Minnesota, Raj Rajagopal, Woodbury, Minnesota, and Ramasubramani Kuduva Raman Thanumoorthy, Woodbury, Minnesota. The abstract states: "Method for detecting an analyte of interest in a sample. The . . .