[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 239 (Tuesday, December 14, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 77882-77883]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-30640]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
National Institutes of Health
Government-Owned Inventions; Availability for Licensing
AGENCY: National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, HHS.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The inventions listed below are owned by an agency of the U.S.
Government and are available for licensing in the U.S. in accordance
with 35 U.S.C. 207 to achieve expeditious commercialization of results
of federally-funded research and development. Foreign patent
applications are filed on selected inventions to extend market coverage
for companies and may also be available for licensing.
ADDRESSES: Licensing information and copies of the U.S. patent
applications listed below may be obtained by writing to the indicated
licensing contact at the Office of Technology Transfer, National
Institutes of Health, 6011 Executive Boulevard, Suite 325, Rockville,
Maryland 20852-3804; telephone: 301/496-7057; fax: 301/402-0220. A
signed Confidential Disclosure Agreement will be required to receive
copies of the patent applications.
Software System for Quantitative Assessment of Vasculature in Three
Dimensional Images
Description of Invention: This invention offered for licensing and
further development is a software system that provides the capability
of efficiently extracting, visualizing and quantifying three
dimensional vascular networks from medical and basic research images.
Deregulation of angiogenesis plays a major role in a number of human
diseases, most notably cancer. A substantial increase in the research
effort in this field over the past decade has deepened the
understanding of the angiogenic process. However, the lack of methods
and software to quantitatively assess vasculature in patients has
considerably hampered the ability to directly study the angiogenesis
process, as well as to discover and develop new therapeutics to
modulate angiogenesis. The present
[[Page 77883]]
invention provides new semi-automated computer algorithms, statistical
methods and user friendly visualization tools for rapid and intuitive
quantitative evaluation of vasculature in three dimensional data sets
obtained through non-invasive imaging techniques such as MRI, CT-Scans,
confocal microscopy, microCT, etc. The methods and software embodied in
this invention provide a three dimensional quantitative capability in
the clinic as a vascular diagnostic tool and in basic research projects
to evaluate changes in vascular network systems.
Applications:
Medical research for studying angiogenesis and tumor
vasculature.
Potential applications in clinical studies and
diagnostics.
Discovery and development of anti-angiogenesis agents with
application to cancer.
Possible application to diseases other than cancer, such
as those related to the lymphatic system, the pulmonary airway, the
kidney filtration system.
Development Status:
The invention is fully developed.
The software will be readily available if so requested.
Inventors: Enrique Zudaire, Christopher Kurcz, Yanling Liu (NCI).
Patent Status: HHS Reference No. E-261-2010/0--Software. Patent
protection is not being pursued for this technology.
Licensing Status: Available for licensing.
Licensing Contacts:
Uri Reichman, PhD, MBA; 301-435-4616; [email protected].
Michael Shmilovich, Esq.; 301-435-5019;
[email protected].
Compounds That Treat Malaria and Prevent Malaria Transmission
Technology Summary: The invention offered for licensing relates to
therapeutic compounds and related pharmaceutical compositions that can
be used in the prevention and treatment of malaria infection. More
specifically, the invention is drawn to compounds that can kill malaria
gametocytes to block malaria transmission and treat malaria infection
in the non-erthtrocytic stages, as well as therapeutic uses of these
molecules to prevent or slow the transmission of plasmodium organisms
between mammals and eliminate or prevent infection in mammal.
Furthermore, the compounds of the invention are tricyclic compounds
where the side rings may be 5-7 membered rings (preferably 6-membered),
and the center ring may be 6-8 membered ring (preferably 7-membered).
Also preferable structures are ones in which the side rings are aryl
rings while the center ring is cycloalkyl ring. The compounds of the
invention have been identified by integrating quantitative high-
throughput screening (qHTS) with genetic mapping and in vivo oocyst
formation assay.
Applications: Prevention and treatment of malaria infections.
Inventors: Xin-zhuan Su and Jing Yuan (NIAID).
Patent Status: International Patent Application No. PCT/US2010/
047019 filed August 27, 2010. Priority Application 61/237,417 filed
August 27, 2009. (HHS Reference No. E-283-2009).
Licensing Status: Available for licensing.
Licensing Contacts:
Uri Reichman, PhD, MBA; 301-435-4616; [email protected].
Michael Shmilovich, Esq.; 301-435-5019;
[email protected].
A Universal Antigen Delivery Platform for Enhanced Immune Response
Description of Invention: The present invention relates to use of
the rotavirus NSP2 octamer as a universal antigen delivery platform for
presenting a high density of neutralizing epitopes to the immune
system, a strategy for boosting antigen immunogenicity. This
application is advanced by the well-defined structural and biochemical
properties of the octamer, its high stability at a broad range of pH,
temperature and ionic stability, and its ease of purification (one
step) under nondenaturing conditions. Long conformationally-dependent
antigens are readily mounted onto the platform by fusion to the C-
terminus of NSP2, a region of the NSP2 protein positioned on the
exposed surface of the octamer. The platform can be expressed in and
purified from prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems.
This technology can be used for rapid production of subunit
vaccines against a wide range of infectious agents. Additional uses of
the technology include the generation of delivery platforms with
mounted short peptide antigens for use in cancer immunotherapy,
production of specific antisera to conformationally and
nonconformationally-dependent antigens for research purposes, and
development of epitope targets and short peptide-antigen presentation
platforms for diagnostic assays.
Applications:
Vaccines against pathogens.
Cancer vaccines.
Antigen-specific antisera.
Multivalent targets in diagnostic assays.
Advantages:
Octameric platform is stable, efficiently expressed, and
easily purified by a single step method.
Enables the display of multivalent conformation-dependent
epitopes.
Effective platform for short peptides as well as long
polypeptides.
Development Status: Proof-of-concept experiments have shown that
the octamer mounted with short peptides or long multivalent
polypeptides retains its structural and biophysical features and is
highly effective in presenting foreign antigens to the immune system.
Ease of purification and final protein yields of the short or long
peptide antigen-mounted NSP2 octamers were comparable suggesting that
the platform accommodates a large range of antigen sizes. The NSP2-
platform also served as an adjuvant, significantly enhancing immunity
of the mounted peptide.
Inventors: John T. Patton (NIAID); Zenobia F. Taraporewala (NIAID).
Relevant Publications:
1. P Schuck et al. Rotavirus nonstructural protein NSP2 self-
assembles into octamers that undergo ligand-induced conformational
changes. J Biol Chem. 2001 Mar 30;276(13):9679-9687. [PubMed:
11121414].
2. H Jayaram et al. Rotavirus protein involved in genome
replication and packaging exhibits a HIT-like fold. Nature. 2002 May
16;417(6886):311-315. [PubMed: 12015608].
3. Z Taraporewala et al. Rotavirus NSP2 octamer as an epitope-
mounting platform. Abstract, 23rd Annual Meeting of the American
Society for Virology, 2004.
4. K Kearney et al. Cell-line-induced mutation of the rotavirus
genome alters expression of an IRF3-interacting protein. EMBO J. 2004
Oct 13;23(20):4072-4081. [PubMed: 15372078].
Patent Status: U.S. Patent Application No. 11/293,654 filed 02 Dec
2005 (HHS Reference No. E-322-2004/0-US-02).
Licensing Status: Available for licensing.
Licensing Contact: Kevin W. Chang, PhD; 301-435-5018;
[email protected].
Dated: December 1, 2010.
Richard U. Rodriguez,
Director, Division of Technology Development and Transfer, Office of
Technology Transfer, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. 2010-30640 Filed 12-13-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-P