Appeal No. 2005-1216
Application No. 10/117,453
desorption from the sides of the pins” into the surrounding space. Id., lines 28-30.
Accordingly, we find that Hillenkamp I [and II] discloses individually addressing each
sample.
With respect to claims 31 and 36-41, Hillenkamp I discloses that MALDI
spectrometry is “a method for mass determination of substances such as peptides,
proteins and DNA fragments.” See, Hillenkamp I, col. 1, lines 6-9. The patent further
discloses that “[i]n this method, the substance to be analyzed is typically placed in a
solution of matrix material and coated onto a support. The solute evaporates, leaving
the analyte in a solid matrix which is then illuminated to cause the analyte molecules or
synthetic polymers to be desorbed.” Id., lines 9-13. The patent still further discloses
that “the matrix consist[s] of a relatively low molecular weight aromatic substance such
as nicotinic acid, benzoic or cinnamic acid, holds a quantity of the peptide, protein or
other substance to be analyzed and is irradiated with a high intensity laser beam to
cause desorption of the analyte from a surface of the sample.” Id., lines 24-30. The
desorption process is said to be “especially useful for releasing large biological
molecules without charring, fragmentation, or chemical degradation to a mass
spectometer or similar instrument for separation and detection.” Id., lines 14-17. We
point out that a reactant is merely something which is involved in a chemical reaction.
Thus, from the foregoing, we find that the biopolymer samples incorporated into the
MALDI matrix, are reactants in the MALDI spectrometry process. Since Hillenkamp I
discloses that the sample holders taught therein, which include the sample holders set
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