Appeal No. 2001-0380 Page 3
Application No. 08/676,971
medium are stirred with a suspended aeration membrane stirrer driven by a
magnetic field….” With regard to Griffiths, the examiner finds (id.) Griffiths
“teaches that magnetic drive stirrers provide a more homogeneous liquid/cell
suspension via axial and radial flow as well as laminar and turbulent mixing….”
In response, appellants argue (Brief, page 7), the art relied up by the
examiner discusses mammalian cells, and does not suggest the use of “stirrer
technology for culturing ciliates … [which] are sensitive to shear forces and were
not though to be amenable to techniques that involve a high degree of physical
disruption.” Appellants refer to the Kiy Declaration to support this position.
According to Kiy (Declaration, paragraph 4), “[c]iliates belong to the most
sensitive of all cells to shear forces and that mammalian cells, on the other hand,
are either adapted to with stand shear force or are treated in such a way as to
lessen the negative effect of shear force.” Therefore appellants argue (Brief,
page 7), “the skilled artisan would not reasonably expect to use stirring with
ciliates, since such a technique would be expected to break these fragile cells.”
Upon review of the references, we note that Wergeland disclose (Column
1, lines 12-16), “the invention is concerned with the oxygenation of biological
cultures using so-called microcarrier techniques, wherein e.g., tissue cells or
mammalian cells are grown on a solid surface in the form of small carrier
beads.”1 Example 7 of Wergeland as relied upon by the examiner (Answer,
page 4, “column 7, lines 31-36”), requires the use of “cells cultivated on
microcarriers (see column 7, line 6). We also note that as relied upon by the
1 We note that there is no evidence on this record that ciliates are grown on microcarriers.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007