Appeal No. 1999-1221
Application No. 08/342-242
advantages that it “enables rapid testing of a variety of compounds” and “can be
carried out using unmodified cells and/or cell lines, avoiding the need for cell
transformation with labor intensive constructs (e.g., reporter constructs) prior to
analysis.” Id.
Discussion
The examiner rejected the claims as obvious over Kruijer (1984), Kruijer
(1985), and Sassone-Corsi (claims 1, 2, 4, 7 -10, and 12) or these three
references together with Pang (claims 1, 3, 13-15, and 17). According to the
examiner, both Kruijer references disclose the use of the claimed method to
identify various growth factors and other compounds as inducers of the early
response gene fos. Examiner’s Answer, pages 5-6. The examiner correctly
notes that the disclosures of Kruijer (1984) and Kruijer (1985) are essentially the
same as the specification’s Examples 2 and 1, respectively. The method
disclosed by the Kruijer references differs from that of the instant claims,
however, in that the instantly claimed method requires monitoring the expression
of a gene other than fos. Specifically, the claimed method requires monitoring a
gene “selected from the Myc, Jun, Myb, or Rel families of genes.”
The examiner found this deficiency in the Kruijer references to be
remedied by Sassone-Corsi. According to the examiner,
Sassone-Corsi et al. discloses that regulation of fos is a paradigm
for early response genes, such as myb, myc, rel and jun
transcription factors (See Title, col. 1, and Fig. 1, page 749; Fig. 11,
page 759). Figure 1 illustrates that a variety of signal transduction
pathways lead to induction of myb, myc and jun. The reference
further teaches that fos and jun interact cooperatively to activate
3
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