Genaissance Pharmaceuticals Inc., of New Haven, Conn., received a notice of allowance for a patent covering haplotype correlation methods associated with its DecoGen Informatics System. The technology is designed to identify correlations between safety and efficacy of drugs and patients' genetic signatures.

Genencor International, of Palo Alto, Calif., was granted U.S. Patent No. 6,835,550 for its I-MUNE Assay technology to enable reduction or enhancement of immune response to proteins and protein-based therapeutics.

Geron Corp., of Menlo Park, Calif., received U.S. Patent No. 6,833,269 for differentiating human embryonic stem cells into neural cells. The patent covers a method of producing neural cells by culturing hESCs in the presence of a mitogen and a neurotrophin.

Grant Life Sciences, of Raleigh, N.C., received a notice of allowance for its patent titled "Peptides From the E2, E6 and E7 Proteins of Human Papillomaviruses 16 and 18 for Detecting and/or Diagnosing Cervical and Other Cancers."

Icoria Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., was granted U.S. Patent No. 6,819,787, relating to the automated detection, analysis and quantification of histological specimens. Also, the company received a notice of allowance for its patent titled "Methods and Systems for Analyzing Complex Biochemical Systems," relating to its metabolomics and data coherence platforms.