Published Oct. 28 & Nov. 4 (EPO) & Oct. 29 (WO)

BioWorldLs weekly European patent preview lists inalphabetical order by assignee, and briefly summarizes, allsalient biotechnology patent applications as they are madepublic in Europe.

European patent offices publish full texts of patent applicationsworldwide within six months of their filing, and months toyears before the corresponding U.S. patent issues.

Two organizations comprise the European system:

-- The European Patent Office (EPO) covers the dozen membercountries of the European Economic Community.

-- The World Intellectual Property Organization (WO) serves alarger number of countries around the world.

As a reader service, BioWorld will supply full-texts of Europeanpatent disclosures upon request. (These can run anywherefrom half a dozen to 100 pages.) A flat fee of $55 each, payablein advance by credit card, defrays airmail postage and handlingcosts from Europe to your. Allow 10 days to two weeks fordelivery.

To order, call 1-800-879-8790. Cite the date the disclosureappeared in BioWorld, the assignee and the serial number.

Nippon Mining Co. Mutation-improved EPO 511 393Tokyo hirudineA hirudine mutant HVIC3 has high antithrombin effect,shortens bleeding time; cloned and expressed in E. coli hostorganism.

NIZO Ede, the Lantibiotic bacterial WO 92/18633Netherlands hostGenetically engineered lactic-acid bacteria, producinglantibiotics by mutating nisin A, for preparation orpreservation of foodstuffs.

Osaka Bioscience Cell-death surface EPO 510 691Inst., Osaka, Japan antigenDNAs encoding human Fas antigen, a ubiquitous polypeptideimplicated in programmed cell death; expression vectors;transformants.

Osaka U. Microbial Varicella-zoster EPO 510 996Dis. Res. Fn., Osaka virus vectorRecombinant varicella-zoster virus contains gene from hepatitisB; used in multivalent vaccine for chickenpox and hepatitis Binfection.

Phillips Petroleum Albumin expressed EPO 510678&693Co., Bartlesville, Okla. in PichiaImproved expression casette for producing human serumalbumin in Pichia pastoris host cells.

Rhone-Poulenc Kluyveromyces EPO 511 912Rorer SAAntony, Fr. gene promoterDNA sequences comprising all or part of gene transcriptionalpromoter sequences for Kluyveromyces lactis yeast; itsderivatives.

Rohm & Haas Co. Avidin-binding EPO 511 747Philadelphia polypeptideRecombinant, hybrid polypeptide containing avidin-bindingdomain; a site for cleaving polypeptide of interest from avidin-binding component.

Salk Institute Decoys for control WO 92/18522La Jolla, Calif. proteinsDNA structures with target sequences that bind to controlproteins, to permit modulation of their transcriptional control.

Schering Corp. Interleukin-3 receptor WO 92/18628Kenilworth, N.J. subunitNucleic acids encoding the a-chain of human interleukin-3receptor; the chain itself, for screening IL-3 agonists,antagonists.in cellular hosts.

Scripps Research Receptor library WO 92/18619 Inst., La Jolla, Calif. phage vectorsFilamentous phage encapsulating genome encodingpolypeptides of self-assembling receptor, e.g., antibody;surface-integrated receptor.

Stratagene Site-based vector WO 92/18632La Jolla, Calif. systemA bacteriophage packaging site-based vector system involvescloning vectors to prepare multi-copy phage libraries of clonedDNA.

Sumitomo Pharm. Co. Neurotrophic peptide EPO 511816Osaka derivativeHuman or rat neurotrophic peptides and derivatives;precursors; genes; expression vectors, for treating neuro-degenerative disorders, e.g., dementia.

Surface Active Ltd. Mono-, bi-, tri-specific EPO 511 011Bristol, U.K. antibodiesFor diagnosis, therapy. Also, method whereby binding of firstantigen to antibody No.1 causes release of adjacentantigen.from antibody No. 2.

UK: Solicitor for affairs ofHer Majesty's treasury Genetic analysis probes, WO92/18646London primersDNA and RNA probes; PCR primers for restriction fragmentlength polymorphism (RFLP) genetic analysis, minisatellitevariation mapping.

Unilever PLC Lipid biosynthesis WO 92/18634London in seedsSeed-specific plant promoter expresses gene before or duringfatty-acid or lipid biosynthesis, to enhance oil- or nutritionalcontent of plant cells.

Washington, Univ. of DNA encoding WO 92/18541Seattle phosphodiesterasesNucleotide sequences encoding calmodulin- and cyclic-GMP-stimulated phosphodiesterases, their recombinant expressionproducts.

Weyerhaeuser Co. Cellulose synthase WO 92/18631Federal Way, Wash. operonNucleic acid sequences encoding bacterial cellulose synthaseoperon derived from Acetobacter; gene isolation methods;vectors; transformed hosts.

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.