Acusphere Inc., of Watertown, Mass., was granted U.S. Patent No. 6,645,528, titled "Porous Drug Matrices and Methods of Manufacture Thereof," covering aspects of its Hydrophobic Drug Delivery System technology for accelerating the dissolution rate of drugs.

Adenosine Therapeutics LLC, of Charlottesville, Va., received U.S. Patent Nos. 6,531,457 and 6,514,949 related to methods and compositions for treating inflammatory diseases with adenosine A2A agonists.

Applied Imaging Corp., of Santa Clara, Calif., received U.S. Patent No. 6,633,662 for the detection of objects of interest, such as cancer cells in tissue and blood or fetal cells in circulating maternal blood, through the analysis of multiple microscopic images.

Astralis Ltd., of Fairfield, N.J., was issued a notice of allowance for a patent related to Psoraxine, its immunotherapeutic agent for psoriasis. The patent focuses on the protein-based therapy's composition of matter, method of use and a partial gene sequence of proteins.

Bolder BioTechnology Inc., of Wheat Ridge, Colo., was granted U.S. Patent No. 6,608,183, which covers cysteine analogues and modified cysteine analogues of human growth hormone and growth hormone antagonists.

Curis Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., received U.S. Patent No. 6,639,051 titled "Regulation of Epithelial Tissue by Hedgehog-like Polypeptides and Formulations and Uses Related Thereto." It claims a method for promoting hair growth through the use of agonists of the Hedgehog signaling pathway.

Cypress Bioscience Inc., of San Diego, was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,635,675, which covers the use of milnacipran to treat pain or fatigue associated with chronic fatigue syndrome.

GeneLink Inc., of Margate, N.J., was issued a notice of allowance for Dermagenetics, a science that uses gene technologies to measure a person's predicted skin deficiencies.

GenPath Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said it was issued a fundamental patent covering its inducible cancer models. GenPath has exclusive rights under the patent from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Geron Corp., of Menlo Park, Calif., was granted U.S. Patent No. 6,642,048, which includes claims that cover methods and compositions for growing human embryonic stem cells using cell-free conditioned media.

Mindset BioPharmaceuticals (USA) Inc., of New Orleans, was awarded a notice of allowance for claims covering its Alzheimer's disease vaccine. Invented by scientists at the New York University School of Medicine, the product is exclusively licensed to Mindset.

NeoRx Corp., of Seattle, said new claims were allowed for its STR (skeletal targeted radiotherapy) product candidate. The STR patent estate is assigned to The Dow Chemical Co. and exclusively licensed to NeoRx in the U.S. and other foreign countries.

Targeted Genetics Corp., of Seattle, was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,639,051 titled "Amplifiable Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) Packaging Cassettes for the Production of Recombinant AAV Vectors," expanding its production systems used to manufacture AAV vectors.

United Therapeutics Corp., of Silver Spring, Md., was issued U.S. Patent No. 6,646,006 titled "Enhancement of Vascular Function by Modulation of Endogenous Nitric Oxide Production or Activity." It relates to the company's platform of arginine dietary supplement products.