Appeal No. 2002-1355 Page 5
Application No. 08/907,783
naive T cells and macrophages/monocytes, mixing the blood sample with (1) a
test compound and (2) immortalized B cells lacking class I and class II major
histocompatibility (MHC) antigens, then determining whether the test compound
induces a response from the T-cells. See, e.g., claim 1.
The examiner rejected all of the claims as obvious. The Examiner’s
Answer sets out fifteen separate § 103 rejections, which are based on six
different sets of references. All of the rejections, however, rely (at least in part) in
the combination of Yokozeki, Goronzy, Schwartz, and the ATCC catalog. We will
start, therefore, with these references.
The examiner characterized Yokozeki as teaching “a method for screening
test compounds for the ability to induce a response from mouse naive T cells.”
Examiner’s Answer, page 3. According to the examiner, “[t]he claimed invention
differs from the reference only by the recitation of the addition of immortalized B
cells which lack class I and class II major histocompatibility complex antigens in
place of the keratinocyte cell line” used by Yokozeki. Id., page 4. The examiner
cited Goronzy, Schwartz, and the ATCC catalog to make up this difference.
According to the examiner,
• Goronzy “teaches a method of using purified human B cells
obtained from peripheral blood that act as antigen presenting cells
to stimulate naive T cells in the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi
antigen and monocytes,”
• “Schwartz teaches the high frequency of alloreactive T cells that
recognize major histocompatibility complex molecules,” and
• the ATCC catalog “lists an immortalized human B cell line (T2)
which . . . lacks HLA-DR (class II major histocompatibility complex
antigens) and does not express class I major histocompatibility
complex.” Id.
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