[Federal Register: December 26, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 248)]
[Notices]
[Page 81532]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr26de00-70]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
National Institutes of Health
Government-Owned Inventions; Availability for Licensing
AGENCY: National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, DHHS.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The inventions listed below are owned by agencies of the U.S.
Government and are available for licensing in the U.S. in accordance
with 35 U.S.C. 207 to achieve expeditious commercialization of results
of federally-funded research and development. Foreign patent
applications are filed on selected inventions to extend market coverage
for companies and may also be available for licensing.
ADDRESSES: Licensing information and copies of the U.S. patent
applications listed below may be obtained by writing to the indicated
licensing contact at the Office of Technology Transfer, National
Institutes of Health, 6011 Executive Boulevard, Suite 325, Rockville,
Maryland 20852-3804; telephone: 301/496-7057; fax: 301/402-0220. A
signed Confidential Disclosure Agreement will be required to receive
copies of the patent applications.
Dombrock Blood Typing
Jeffery L. Miller, Alexander Gubin, Marion E. Reid (NIDDK)
[DHHS Reference No. E-185-00/0 filed 23 Sep 2000]
Licensing Contact: John Rambosek; 301/496-7056 ext. 270; email:
rambosej@od.nih.gov.
The Dombrock blood group was first discovered in 1965. It is
comprised of five alleles: two common alleles, Do(a+) and Do(b+), and
three very rare alleles Gy(a), Hy, and Jo(a) which are essentially
different null alleles. The Dombrock blood group system has been
estimated to be the fifth most useful blood group marker in Caucasians.
Blood typing for this blood group is hard to do, since there is a
limited amount of antibodies, and the antigens are tricky to work with.
This invention discloses the gene and polymorphisms of that gene that
result in the Dombrock blood group antigenicity. Thus this invention
provides for the first time a method for reliably typing the human
blood supply for the Dombrock blood group antigenicity. The genetic
information may also be used to generate antigen-specific antibodies
for blood typing. The primary use for the technology is to improve
blood typing practices through molecular means and thereby prevent
clinical problems (transfusion reactions, etc.) associated with
improperly mismatched blood.
Microbial Identification Databases
Jon G. Wilkes, Fatemeh Rafii, Katherine L. Glover, Manuel Holcomb, Cao
M. Xiaoxi, John B. Sutherland (FDA)
[DHHS Reference No. E-169-00/0 filed 10 Oct 2000]
Licensing Contact: Dale Berkley; 301/496-7735 ext. 223; e-mail:
berkleyd@od.nih.gov.
The invention is a method for assembling a coherent database
containing an essentially unlimited number of pyrolysis mass spectra to
enable rapid chemotaxonomy of unknown microbial samples. The invention
corrects for short and long-term drift of microbial pyrolysis mass
spectra by using spectra of similar microbes as internal standards. The
invention provides for the first time a practical way to assemble a
coherent database containing an essentially unlimited number of
pyrolysis mass spectra, where one or more is representative of each
relevant strain, and representative of additional strains as they are
added to the pool of microbial agents. Microorganisms can be identified
using the invention from their fingerprint spectra regardless of the
growth medium used to culture the bacteria. This is a result of the
discovery that corrections made to the fingerprint spectrum of one type
of bacterium to compensate for changes in growth medium may be applied
successfully to metabolically similar bacteria. Fingerprint spectra to
which the method of the invention may be applied include mass spectra,
infrared spectra, chromatograms, NMR spectra and ion-mobility spectra.
The present invention is especially useful for the rapid identification
of microorganisms, including human pathogens.
Quantifying Gene Relatedness via Nonlinear Prediction of Gene
Expression Levels
Dougherty et al. (NHGRI)
[Serial No. 09/595,580 filed 15 Jun 2000]
Licensing Contact: Dale Berkley; 301/496-7735 ext. 223; e-mail:
berkleyd@od.nih.gov.
This invention relates to a new way to analyze the function of a
newly identified gene. Working together, the genes within a genomic
system constitute a control system for modulating gene expression
activity and protein production. Regulation within this control system
depends on multivariate relations among genes. Therefore, a key window
into understanding genomic activity is to quantify the manner in which
the expression profile among a set of genes can be used to predict the
expression levels of other genes. This invention provides the
experimental, statistical, and computational basis for nonlinear and
linear multivariate prediction and co-determination among gene
expression levels, and it is applied in the context of cDNA
microarrays. Using these measures of multi-gene interactivity, it is
possible to infer genomic regulatory mechanisms and thereby identify
the manner in which genetic malfunction contributes to cancer and
developmental anomalies.
Dated: December 14, 2000.
Jack Spiegel,
Director, Division of Technology Development and Transfer, Office of
Technology Transfer, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. 00-32814 Filed 12-22-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-P