Appeal No. 1997-3221
Application No. 08/249,241
The examiner responds (Answer, page 10) to appellants’ argument by citing
to Sun’s teaching of a cDNA encoding two thirds of human GluR2 as well as the
chromosomal location of the corresponding gene in humans. The examiner also
states (Answer, bridging paragraph, pages 11-12) “[t]here is no art of record which
reports that a human homologue of a known rat neurotransmitter receptor does not
exist.” This is not the proper foundation for an obviousness rejection.
To be proper, the examiner’s rejection requires a reasonable expectation of
success in obtaining the human GluR2B receptor of a specified sequence as
claimed. The examiner’s rejection (Answer, bridging paragraph, pages 6-7) finds
that it would have been prima facie obvious to isolate GluR2B from a human cDNA
library by probing that library with a rat nucleic acid probe “in a manner that was
directly analogous to the one described by Puckett et al.”
Sun (abstract) identifies “a second clone, HBGR2, contains approximately
two-thirds of the coding region of a receptor homologous to rat brain clone GluR2.”
Sun teaches (page 1443, Materials and Methods, column 2) that a probe was
amplified using two PCR primers derived from GluR1. This probe was then used
(Sun, page 1444, bridging paragraph, columns 1-2) for ”[h]ybridization screening [of
a human brain cDNA library] at high stringency.” This screen yielded four positive
clones, derived from two different transcripts. The first clone was found to be
homologous to rat GluR1, the second clone was found to be homologous to GluR2.
Sun, page 1444, bridging paragraph, columns 1-2. Sun localizes the HBGR2-
encoding gene on chromosome
54 Paper No. 36, received January 4, 1999.
64
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