Appeal No. 1997-3898
Application No. 08/116,382
a change in luminescence when exposed to toxic gases (c. 1, ll. 35-50; c. 2, ll. 44-61; c. 3,
ll. 51-53). Jordon does not detect individual toxins. Drucker, on the other hand, selectively
detects the presence or absence of a specific chemical toxin in a gas, liquid or on solid
sample using a pair of toxin-sensitive and toxin-resistant mutant substrains genetically
derived from the same parental strain of bioluminescent microorganisms having
luminescent outputs which are unaffected by the presence of other chemical toxins than the
toxin selected for (p. 1, ll. 2-10; p. 3, ll. 10-17).
Bjorseth uses thin layer chromatography (TLC) to separate complex mixtures into
individual components and uses the Ames Salmonella test to detect mutagenic chemicals
directly on the TLC plates (para. bridging pp. 87-88).
Bostick detects selected biomarkers isolated from complex biological samples by
chromatography by contacting a sample of effluent with biomarker specific reactants to
generate a bioluminescent signal correlative of the concentration of the specific biomarker
(c. 3, ll. 8-59). Example 1 illustrates determination of creatine kinase by a luciferase
enzymatic reaction (ccs. 4-5).
According to the examiner, it would have been obvious to use the TLC separation
and direct assay method of Bjorseth in the toxicity assay of either Jordon or Drucker to
provide simultaneous assay of multiple toxins in a single sample and to identify individual
toxins given Bostick's generic "concept of chromatographic separation and subsequent
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