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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Freedom Fighter who wrote (75991)	2/16/2000 3:50:00 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

Company says it filed 10,000 gene patents WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - A tiny, privately owned biotechnology company said on Tuesday it had filed for preliminary patents covering more than 10,000 new genes and says it has a new approach to patenting and testing genes. Cleveland-based Athersys said it has found a way to force genes to produce proteins without going through the steps that other companies do to isolate genes. The company, which in 1997 announced it had created the first synthetic human chromosome, said it used its trade marked Random Activation of Gene Expression for Gene Discovery (RAGE-GD) technology to discover the genes. Kathryn Garvey, director of strategic planning for Athersys, said the RAGE-GD process starts by breaking up the DNA in human cells using radiation. A genetic promotor, a kind of on-switch, is then inserted. Eventually, she said, the switch will find a break right at the front of a gene and turn it on. ``By doing this to millions of cells, we can insert our on-switch basically in front of every gene in the genome,' she said in a telephone interview. ``As a result we get protein expression from those genes.' The company, which is competing with Human Genome Sciences Inc. (NasdaqNM:HGSI - news), Celera (NYSE:CRA - news) and Incyte (NasdaqNM:INCY - news), among others, in the race to patent potentially useful genes, said the RAGE-GD helped activate and express genes, ``including those that are ordinarily silent in most tissues, without requiring the cloning of ... DNA sequences that encode specific genes.' Most other companies ``clone' or make copies of genes they are targeting. Then they splice them into bacteria or other types of cells and force them to produce protein. Many proteins on the market, including insulin and human growth factor, are produced in this way. Garvey said Athersys's method gets actual human cells to produce the proteins and bypasses methods that have been patented by other companies, such as Amgen (NasdaqNM:AMGN - news). ``We don't clone the gene; we don't isolate it; we don't remove it from the cell. We get production of a natural human protein without knowing anything about the gene,' she said. ``If we find a way to produce protein without using the gene directly, we feel we can commercialize the protein.' Garvey said about half the genes the company has found are new, based on a search of public databases. ``We think we will get to some rarely expressed genes faster than other companies will be able to get to them,' she said. The company has been quietly checking out its legal stance. ``One of the reasons we have been so quiet -- we call it stealth mode -- is that we have been building our intellectual property foundation,' Garvey said. In October Celera Genomics Group said it had filed preliminary patents on 6,500 whole or partial genes. Rival HGSI has filed 6,700 full patent applications on various genes. Incyte says it has filed 6,300 full-length gene patents and been granted 173. It says it has filed patents that involve 50,000 different genes but most are just partial sequences. Preliminary patents act as a sort of ``place holder', giving the filer more time to file a full patent application. >>>This could be the final sector bubble for the market. >>>Biotech companies don't buy routers, give away coupons >>>for 'sales', advertize heavily at the Super Bowl or on >>>every 15 minutes on the TV. They don't require phone >>>companies, cable companies, etc to buy equipment, hard >>>disks, etc. A bubble that doesn't immediately stimulate >>>the economy, though the health benefits are down the road.