Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Loring's 1998 patent application shows interest in non-mouse embryonic stem cells

Thomson's US 5,843,780, which issued Dec. 1, 1998, is based on application 08/591,246, filed on January 18, 1996. Loring's application 9/199,703 was filed on November 24, 1998, one week before Thomson's '780 patent issued.

Loring's application had a claim to An isolated population of non-mouse embryonic stem cells, as may be seen in published application US 20020188963 (based on patent application 10/165765, filed June 6, 2002), which '765 application is a continuation of Loring's '703 application. [A preliminary amendment in the '765 application changed the claims, but because this was a paper, rather than an electronic, filing, the changed claims AND the fact that the '765 is a continuation do NOT appear in the published application.]

It is interesting to note that the article by Terri Somers in the San Diego Union Tribune entitled --Embryonic stem cell pioneer chose to publish, not patent-- contains the text:

The lack of interest in human embryonic stem cells was a result of several things, primarily the fact that scientists were immersed in mouse embryonic stem cells, said Loring, from the Burnham Institute.

Evidently, Somers did not review the patent application of Loring, which suggests that not all scientists were immersed in mouse embryonic stem cells (i.e., some scientists were claiming an isolated population of non-mouse embryonic stem cells.)

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on coverage by californiastemcellreport of the article by Terri Somers.


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Thomson's '780 patent references Hogan's U.S. 5,453,357, and, of course, Bongso, et al., "Isolation and culture of inner cell mass cells from human blastocysts", Human Reproduction, 9:2110-2117, 1994. John Gearhart's US 6,090,622 (filed March 31, 1997) cites Thomson's '780 patent, and contains within its abstract: Primordial germ cells extracted from post blastocyst human embryos, such as from the gonadal ridges of a 8-11 week LMP human embryo, are disclosed. Gearhart also wrote: Any method which would allow production of human ES and EG would be desirable since, human EG cell lines would permit easier study of early human development, and the use of such human EG cell lines would enable the development of cell cultures for transplantation and manufacture of bio-pharmaceutical products.

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ZDNet notes: a bill to limit emails and phone calls among elected New Jersey officials outside public meetings has been resurrected

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