Appeal 2007-2400
Application 10/418,182
(Answer 5.) The Examiner acknowledges that “Crea . . . does not positively
recite the total subset of the possible subsets that can be formed from the
combined mutations in the CDRs library” (id. at 8). However, the Examiner
concludes that it would have been obvious
to determine the total number of subset[s] that can be obtained
from the possible combinations of mutations in the CDR
regions of a library. The motivation to make such mutations is
provided by Crea above in reciting the advantages derived in
said mutations e.g., providing a means for systematic insertion
of an amino acid into a region of a protein, this method
provides a way to enrich a region of a protein with a particular
amino acid.
(Id.)
We agree with the Examiner that the library of claim 1 would have
been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art based on Crea. Crea
teaches the method of walk-through mutagenesis: “[T]he method comprises
introducing a predetermined amino acid into each and every position in a
predefined region (or several different regions) of the amino acid sequence
of a protein. . . . The method can be referred to as ‘walk-through’
mutagenesis.” (Crea, col. 2, ll. 45-65).
Crea teaches that “[u]sually, the region studied will be a functional
domain of a protein such as a binding or catalytic domain. For example, the
region can be the hypervariable region (complementarity-determining region
or CDR) of an immunoglobulin.” (Id. at col. 10, ll. 1-5.) Crea also teaches
that “several different regions or domains of a protein can be mutagenized
simultaneously. The same or a different amino acid can be ‘walked-
through’ each region.” (Id. at col. 11, ll. 1-3.) Crea specifically suggests
that “the six hypervariable regions of an immunoglobulin, which make up
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