Rick,
Were you aware of this news release...."Infigen Awarded Significant U.S. Patent for Farm Animal Cloning; Award Brings Cloning Even Closer to Commercial Applications by Enhancing Cell Growth Rate
PR Newswire, Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 15:08
/FROM PR NEWSWIRE MINNEAPOLIS 612-331-7800/ [STK] [IN] AGR BIO MTC [SU] TO BUSINESS, SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY EDITORS:
Infigen Awarded Significant U.S. Patent for Farm Animal Cloning; Award Brings
Cloning Even Closer to Commercial Applications by Enhancing Cell Growth Rate
DEFOREST, Wis., June 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Infigen, Inc., announced today that the company has been awarded another patent in a series of issued U.S. patents that encompass essential fundamental steps for the cloning of mammals. Several patents issued worldwide cover critical elements of Infigen's proprietary nuclear transfer (NT) technology platform. Infigen is a privately held biotechnology company merging genomics and reproductive technologies to advance both animal agriculture and human health.
"Infigen has a superior success rate in nuclear transfer cloning in farm mammals, relative to the industry worldwide. Much of our success is derived from the specific proprietary processes for mature oocyte activation covered under this new patent," said Walter Simson, Chief Executive Officer of Infigen.
The patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,194,202, together with previously granted U.S. Patent Nos. 6,077,710; 5,843,754, and 5,496,720, cover critical steps for the activation of a cloned cell. This is a critical step of the process that enables a fully-grown mammal, such as a lamb or calf, to be grown from a single cell. Embryo growth and development are impossible without activation of the mature oocyte.
Processes covered by relevant Infigen patents are expected to eventually lessen the cost and complexity of cloning transgenic cattle and other livestock. These may facilitate production of large herds that can be quickly tailored for the harvesting of both specific medicinal and nutritional products.
The new patent affords Infigen a substantial extension of its intellectual property portfolio. This covers all uses of NT-related cloning of mammalian cells, including livestock such as cattle and pigs, for all agriculture and human health applications worldwide. The new patent also recognizes Infigen's innovative application of electrofusion, the delivery of an electrical pulse in a specific chemical environment to induce fusion.
"The core of this newly recognized intellectual property is a proprietary 'maintenance' period we have developed for the mammalian oocyte, a critical step that enhances fusion of the nuclear material from the donor cell with the cytoplasm of the oocyte," said Dr. Michael Bishop, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Infigen.
By developing the "maintenance period," Infigen has been successful in enhancing the mature oocyte's rate of growth.
"This benefit translates directly into greater efficiencies -- i.e., higher rate of successful animal pregnancies -- than has been demonstrated at competing companies," said Dr. Bishop.
Nuclear transfer allows the "programming" of cells with specific insertions of genetic instructions from one species to be obtained from another. This is known as the "transgenic" process.
Authors of U.S. Patent No. 6,194,202, entitled "Parthenogenic oocyte activation," include Joan L. Susko-Parrish, David L. Northey, M. Lorraine Leibfried Rutledege, and Steven L. Stice, all of the University of Wisconsin. Infigen, Inc. wholly owns the patent.
Infigen has developed NT processes to allow farm animals to be encoded to produce a safe, unlimited, cost-effective supply of therapeutic hormones in milk and allow the commercial-scale production of pigs with internal organs and cells for transplantation to humans with end stage organ disease.
ABOUT INFIGEN, INC. AND GENMARK:
Infigen, Inc., formed in August 1997, is a privately-held biotechnology company commercializing its proprietary nuclear transfer cloning in the human health and animal agriculture fields. The company has other existing strategic partnerships with Pharming N.V. to produce human therapeutics from the milk of transgenic cattle and Immerge BioTherapeutics, Inc., a joint venture of Novartis Pharma AG and BioTransplant Incorporated (NASDAQ:BTRN), to develop genetically modified miniature swine for the study of xenotransplantation (transplantation between species). In 2000, Infigen was issued a U.S. patent covering critical processes for cloning any mammal, excluding humans, utilizing Nuclear Transfer. Infigen markets its agricultural products under the trademark name of Genmark. In addition to its AgriCloning(TM) products, Genmark also markets marker assisted selection, diagnostic testing, and tissue/cell harvesting and storage. For further information on Infigen and Genmark, visit infigen.com and genmarkag.com |
