Appeal No. 1997-2532
Application No. 08/427,569
of the nucleic acid sequence of interest and a second segment that is complementary to
an oligonucleotide bound to a solid phase; (b) contacting the product of step (a) with the
oligonucleotide bound to the solid phase; (c) thereafter separating materials not bound to
the solid phase; (d) contacting the product of step (c) with the nucleic acid multimer,
wherein the multimer comprises at least one oligonucleotide that is complementary to the
second segment of the amplifier probe and a multiplicity of second oligonucleotide units
that are complementary to a labeled oligonucleotide;
(e) removing unbound multimer; (f) contacting the product of step (e) with the labeled
oligonucleotide; (g) removing unbound labeled oligonucleotide; and (h) detecting the
presence of label in the product of step (g) to detect the presence of the nucleic acid
sequence of interest in the sample (see e.g., claim 12; pp. 3, 7, 24-27 and 31-32; Example
3, pp. 46-49). While Urdea exemplifies assays, reagents and kits for detecting hepatitis B
virus, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis, "Urdea does not teach the use
of any HTLV-1 sequences nor a methodology for selecting any specific HTLV-1
sequences" (answer, p. 4, last sentence). In other words, Urdea does not disclose or
suggest amplifier and capture probes having first segments selected from the group
consisting of SEQ ID NOs. 6-41 and SEQ ID NOs. 42-53, respectively.
Seiki "reports the complete 9,032-nucleotide sequence of the proviral genome [of
HTLV-1] cloned in 8ATK-1" (p. 3618, sentence bridging cc. 1-2; Fig. 2) and points "out that
- 6 -
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007