Appeal No. 1997-3221
Application No. 08/249,241
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.
54
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