Appeal No. 2000-1779 Application No. 08/473,204 II. The GLUR2 Subclass: Appeal No. 1999-1393 Application No. 08/242,344 Claims 1 and 2 are illustrative of the subject matter on appeal and are reproduced below: 1. An isolated polynucleotide that encodes human GluR2B. 2. An isolated polynucleotide according to claim 1, that encodes human GluR2B having amino acid sequence SEQ ID NO:2. GROUNDS OF REJECTION Claims 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 over Heinemann in view of Puckett and Sun. We reverse. The rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 103: The examiner states (Answer48, bridging paragraph, pages 8-9) that: The isolation of a cDNA encoding the human counterpart of the rat GluR2 subunit that was described in the Heinemann et al. publication by probing the cDNA library of Sun et al. or Puckett et al., each of which was constructed from mRNA isolated from human brain, with a nucleic acid probe encoding all or part of rat GluR2 in a manner that was directly analogous to the method described by Puckett et al. to facilitate the recombinant expression and characterization of the encoded product in the absence of other human glutamate receptor subunits for those reasons that were expressly given by Sun et al. would have been prima facie obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art of molecular biology at the time that the instant invention was made. Given the high level of sequence conservation between rat and human GluR1s as disclosed in each of the Sun et al. and Puckett et al. references and the high degree of sequence and structural similarity between the rat GluR1 and GluR2 subunits as disclosed by Heinemann et al., an artisan had more than a reasonable expectation that the GluR2 of Heinemann et al. was 48 Paper No. 22, mailed January 13, 1998. 54Page: Previous 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007