Appeal No. 2001-2500
Application No. 08/590,729
components of the mixture, measuring the amount of protein produced, and
determining the fluorescence and biological activity of the labeled protein.
The examiner rejected claim 1, and dependent claims 5 -9, under 35
U.S.C. § 103, on the basis that Kudlicki teaches a cell-free protein synthesis
method meeting all of the limitations of claim 1 except that Kudlicki does not
teach synthesis of fluorescently labeled proteins. Examiner’s Answer, page 4.
The examiner found this deficiency to be remedied by the secondary references.
In particular, the examiner cites Picking as teaching “a synthetic alanyl-tRNA and
a synthetic lysyl-tRNA, covalently linked to the fluorescent molecule coumarin,”
and production of labeled peptides incorporating the fluorescently labeled amino
acids. See id.
The examiner concluded that
[i]t would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the
time of the invention to use the bacterial cell-free coupled
transcription/translation system of Kudlicki et al. to synthesize
fluorescently labeled proteins (as suggested on pg 393, last
paragraph of Discussion) . . . by using aminoacyl-tRNAs linked to
coumarin, especially like the fluorescent lysyl-tRNA of Picking et al.
Id., pages 4-5. He found motivation to be provided both by the express
“suggest[ion] on pg 393, last paragraph of Discussion” in Kudlicki and by “the
ability/utility to readily detect [the labeled proteins], over unlabeled proteins, in
enzyme assays and their usefulness as markers.” Id., page 5.
We agree with the examiner that the cited references would have
rendered the claimed method obvious. Kudlicki discloses a “high efficiency
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