Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc., of Jerusalem, said it licensed U.S. Patent No. 6,174,993 from its joint owners, the Children's Hospital of Boston and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It relates to drug discovery for a family of kinases implicated in cancer, diabetes, obesity and autoimmune disorders.

Protein Design Labs Inc., of Fremont, Calif., said it received U.S. Patent No. 6,180,370. It covers widely used methods for making humanized antibodies and humanized antibodies made by these methods.

Transkaryotic Therapies Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said it received U.S. Patent No. 6,187,305. It covers a method of gene therapy that inserts exogenous DNA into vertebrate cells in vitro through a process called homologous recombination, or gene targeting.

Tripos Inc., of St. Louis, said it received U.S. Patent No. 6,185,506. It covers novel computational methodologies for the design of combinatorial compound libraries to improve the productivity and cost-effectiveness of drug discovery.

Variagenics Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., said it received U.S. Patent No. 6,183,958. It covers a family of methods for obtaining and using probes to determine the sequence of DNA polymorphisms on individual chromosomes.