TedF, I hadn't heard of ITC before, but found out that Dr. Moro was it's CEO at one time. I always wondered how Dr. Moro managed to patent a microchip used by NASA in space, while at the same time pursuing medical research. I think I may have figured out a little more of the puzzle.
Seems that Dr. Moro patented an improved ELISA reader back around 1991. Based on the patent info, the ELISA reader consisted of a plastic substrate with multiple wells into which biological substances were placed. Wires were attached to each well to allow a computer to cycle through and measure the conductivity (i.e., resistivity) of the resulting reactions in each well. (see: Measurement apparatus for measuring a biological substance within a fluid substrate http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5218312.html)
A subsequent patent application in 1993 (while Dr. Moro was working at ITC) describes a microcontroller circuit for connecting to a computer serial port. Based on my review of the patent info, it seems like a pretty simple circuit, but it could have been useful for interfacing to the improved ELISA reader. I think Dr. Moro decided to take the original prototype circuitry from his ELISA reader and build a custom chip for it. (see: External multiple peripheral interface to computer serial port using individually configured parallel port terminals http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5812879.html)
I also suspect that NASA may have used Dr. Moro's ELISA reader/microchip on one of their spacecraft to perform biological measurements/experiments.
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