[Federal Register: December 9, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 236)]
[Notices]
[Page 68639]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr09de03-93]
[[Page 68639]]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The invention listed below is owned by an agency of the U.S.
Government and is 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 any 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.
Human UGRP1 (Uteroglobin-Related Protein 1) Promoter and Its Use
Shioko Kimura and Tomoaki Nimi (NCI). PCT Application No. PCT/US02/
19456 filed 18 Jun 2002 (with priority to 20 Jun 2001), which published
as W0 03/000111 on 03 Jan 2003 (DHHS Reference No. E-058-2001/0-PCT-
02). Licensing Contact: Susan Carson; (301) 435-5020; carsonsu@mail.nih.gov.
Asthma is a genetically complex, multi-factorial disease affecting
more than 17 million people in the United States alone and costing
approximately US$6 billion to treat annually. Identification, mapping
and linkage analyses of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) have
been increasingly used both to study the genetic etiology of asthma and
to detect genetic loci contributing to asthma susceptibility.
Researchers from the National Cancer Institute have described a novel
gene, located in an asthma-susceptibility gene loci 5q31-34, named
UGRP1 (uteroglobin-related protein 1) and an associated polymorphism
that is significantly associated with asthma (Nimi et al. (2002) Am. J.
Hum. Genet 70: 718-725).
UGRP1 is a homodimeric secretory protein of [sim]10 kDA and is
expressed only in lung and trachea. The -112G/A polymorphism was
identified in the human UGRP1 gene promoter and is responsible for a
24% reduction in the promoter activity in relation to the -112G allele,
as examined by transfection analysis. In a case-control study using 169
Japanese individuals (84 with asthma and 85 unrelated healthy controls)
those with a -112A allele (G/A or A/A) were 4.1 times more likely to
have asthma than were those with the wild-type allele(G/G).
The invention describes the -112G/A polymorphism and the UGRP1
promoter region as well as methods for detecting polymorphisms present
in the UGRP1 promoter which can be used as indicators for diagnosing or
for predicting a predisposition to develop a respiratory disorder. The
complex and polygenic nature of asthma suggests that this potential
asthma susceptibility allele can be of great value not only to
companies targeting respiratory diseases such as asthma but also to
those more broadly involved in gene discovery, gene mapping,
association-based candidate polymorphism testing, pharmacogenetics,
diagnostics and risk profiling.
Dated: December 1, 2003.
Steven M. Ferguson,
Director, Division of Technology Development and Transfer, Office of
Technology Transfer, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. 03-30497 Filed 12-8-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-P