Appeal No. 2006-0732 Page 2
Application No. 10/060,974
Claims 1, 2, and 4-6 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. §§ 101 and 112, first
paragraph, as lacking patentable utility. We affirm.
Background
The specification discloses a polynucleotide encoding a human polypeptide
(referred to generically as a “novel human protein” or NHP) that “shares structural
similarity with mammalian transporters, and particularly sodium iodide cotransporters or
symporters and multivitamin transporters.” Page 2. The disclosed polynucleotide
encodes a polypeptide of 610 amino acids (SEQ ID NO:2). Id.
The specification states that
[t]ransporter proteins are integral membrane proteins that mediate or
facilitate the passage of materials across the lipid bilayer. Given that the
transport of materials across the membrane often plays an important
physiological role, transporter proteins are good drug targets.
Page 1.
The specification does not disclose what material(s) the putative transporter of
SEQ ID NO:2 transports across a membrane, or the role the protein of SEQ ID NO:2
plays in any biological process, but contemplates “processes for identifying compounds
that modulate, i.e., act as agonists or antagonists of, NHP expression and/or NHP
activity . . . . Such compounds can be used as therapeutic agents for the treatment of
any of a wide variety of symptoms associated with biological disorders or imbalances.”
Page 3. The specification states that the “sequences of the present invention are also
useful as additional DNA markers for restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)
analysis, and in forensic biology.” Id.
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