Appeal 2007-1819
Application 09/886,055
Olfactory “receptors belong to the superfamily of seven-
transmembrane guanyl nucleotide-binding proteins . . .” (Specification 1).
“The human genome contains thousands of genes that encode a diverse
repertoire of olfactory receptors,” which are “expressed in subsets of cells
distributed in distinct zones of the olfactory epithelium” and “are active
primarily in olfactory neurons” (Specification 6). “These receptors control
diverse physiological functions such as mediating signaling from an external
chemical stimulus across the membrane containing the receptor into a cell,
endocrine function, exocrine function, heart rate, lipolysis, and carbohydrate
metabolism” (Specification 2). More specifically, olfactory “receptors bind
odorants and initiate the transduction of chemical stimuli into electrical
signals. An activated or inhibited G-protein will in turn alter the properties
of target enzymes, channels, and other effector proteins” (Specification 39-
40). As Appellants explain,
[a]n understanding of an animal’s ability to detect and
discriminate among the thousands of distinct odorants . . . and
more particularly to distinguish, for example beneficial . . .
odorants from toxic . . . odorants, is complicated by the fact that
sensory receptors belong to a multigene family with over a
thousand members, and the odorant receptors number at least
500 to 1,000.
(Specification 6). “[E]ach sensory receptor neuron may express only one or
a few of these receptors” (id.). Further, “any given olfactory neuron can
respond to a small set of odorant ligands . . . [and] odorant discrimination for
a given neuron may depend on the ligand specificity of the one or few
receptors it expresses” (id.). As Appellants explain, “[d]issecting the
function of sensory receptors . . . will separate the diverse physiological
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