Luna Analytics, of Blacksburg, Va., was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,275,628 titled ¿Single-Ended Long-Period Grating Optical Device.¿ This patent enables a new configuration for the optical fiber sensing head that makes it compatible with the equipment and protocols currently in use in life science and proteomic laboratories. The long-period grating technology is a sensing device developed in the telecom sector that Luna Analytics is commercializing for direct detection and assessment of the quality of molecular interactions.

MediGene AG, of Munich, Germany, was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,277,621, giving MediGene broad protection covering the use of bacterial artificial chromosomes for generating recombinant viruses for research and therapeutic purposes.

Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,271,199, which covers methods of treating infarcts and reperfusion injury by administering a proteasome inhibitor or a ubiquitin inhibitor. Millennium said the patent gives it an exclusive position with respect to treatment of such conditions using its lead candidate, LDP-341, and other proteasome and ubiquitin inhibitors.

Nabi Inc., of Boca Raton, Fla., was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,294,177 titled ¿Staphylococcus aureus antigen-containing whole cells vaccine.¿ This patent covers the composition of an S. aureus vaccine, the method of vaccine preparation and its use as a therapeutic or prophylactic agent to protect animals against infection.

NeoTherapeutics Inc., of Irvine, Calif., was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,297,226 covering the use of Neotrofin and related compounds to stimulate regeneration of both motor and sensory neurons.

NeoTherapeutics Inc., of Irvine, Calif., was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,297,226 titled ¿Synthesis and Methods of Use of 9-Substituted Guanine Derivatives.¿ This patent represents a purine-based technology developed by the company¿s internal scientists.

Odyssey Pharmaceuticals Inc., of San Ramon, Calif., was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,294,330 titled ¿Protein Fragment Complementation Assays for the Detection of Biological or Drug Interactions.¿

Phylos Inc., of Lexington, Mass., was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,281,344 titled ¿Nucleic Acid-Protein Fusion Molecules and Libraries.¿ The technology covered under this patent, which is licensed exclusively to Phylos from the Massachusetts General Hospital, forms the basis of the Phylos PROfusion technology, a novel in vitro combinatorial biology platform.

Signature BioScience Inc., of Hayward, Calif., was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,287,874 titled ¿Methods for Analyzing protein-binding events,¿ which is directed to screening compounds for their ability to bind to a protein of interest and provides broad coverage for detection techniques that use the radio wave and microwave portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, a region not previously used for real-time detection of biochemical events. The company also was awarded U.S. Patent No. 6,287,776 titled ¿Method for Detecting and Classifying Nucleic Acid Hybridization,¿ which is directed to detection of nucleic acid hybridization complexes and covers techniques that allow completely complementary hybridization complexes to be distinguished from a complex that contains a single mismatch in an otherwise complementary sequence.