[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 105 (Tuesday, June 2, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30007-30008]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-14497]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

National Institutes of Health


Government-Owned Inventions; Availability for Licensing

AGENCY: National Institutes of Health, Pubic Health Service, DHHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The inventions listed below are owned by agencies 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.

Applicator System And Method Of Use

MJ Lenardo, G Fisher (NIAID)

Serial No. 09/005,475 Filed 12 Jan 98
    Licensing Contact: John Fahner-Vihtelic, 301/496-7735 ext. 270.
    The present application describes a novel microcentrifuge tube and 
tube cap and research method, which allows for dispensing the contents 
of a microcentrifuge tube without pipetting. The design eliminates 
pipetting volume error and prevents the cross-contamination which can 
be experienced in conventional pipetting. This invention is 
particularly useful for such applications as loading tube contents into 
an electrophoresis gel after a reaction such as PCR. Using the 
disclosed apparatus and methods increases the speed of a variety of 
routine procedures and prevents contamination of samples due to soiled 
lab apparatus.

Linking Compounds Useful For Coupling Carbohydrates To Amine-
Containing Carriers

P Kova, J Zhang (NIDDK)

Serial No. 60/069,686 Field 12 Dec 97
    Licensing Contact: Robert Benson, 301/496-7056 ext. 267.
    This invention describes an inexpensive and easy method of linking 
carbohydrates and carriers containing an amino group to form 
neoglycoconjugates. The resulting neoglycoconjugates are useful as 
vaccines (i.e., bacterial LPS or LOS-carrier protein conjugate 
vaccines) or as biologically active chromatographic substrates (i.e., 
carbohydrates bound to aminopropyl glass). The method involves specific 
linkers that are easily made from inexpensive commercially available 
starting materials. The carbohydrates to be used in the method are 
limited only by the ability to convert such carbohydrates into glycosyl 
donors. Claimed are the linkers, conjugates made with the linkers and 
intermediates, and methods of synthesizing the linkers and conjugates. 
The invention is described in Tetrahedron letters 39, 1091-1094, 1998.

System And Method For Intelligent Quality Control Of A Process

JM DeLeo (CIT), AT Remaley (CC)

Serial No. 60/066,624 Filed 26 Nov 97
    Licensing Contact: John Fahner-Vihtelic, 301/496-7735 ext. 270.
    The present application is a methodology for monitoring the quality 
control of a process on-line for the purpose of predicting and 
preventing unusual/untoward events or failures in that process. Such 
processes include (but are not limited to) acquisition of medical data 
from laboratory instruments, assembly line manufacturing, and general 
plant or factory operations. The methodology is based on a two-tiered 
automated intelligent agent architecture. Intelligent agents in the 
first tier are neural networks trained to detect specific errors for 
specific process environment parameters. The single-agent second tier 
is an expert system that integrates inputs from first tier agents to 
derive corrective action decisions that are manually or automatically 
executed in the process environment. Error prevalence and wrong-
decision cost information are factored into the action decision-making 
process. For clinical laboratory instruments, the method monitors 
patient laboratory data and provides significant improvement in quality 
control at reduced cost compared to existing methods.

Identification Of The Human Pendred Syndrome Gene

E Green, et al. (NHGRI)

DHHS Reference No. E-004-98/0 Filed 28 Oct 97
    Licensing Contact: Dennis Penn, 301/496-7065, ext. 211.
    Pendred syndrome is a recessively inherited disorder which was 
poorly understood until the discovery of the Pendred syndrome gene. 
This syndrome, which is associated with congenital deafness and thyroid 
goiter, may account for upwards of 10% of hereditary deafness. The gene 
encodes for the protein pendrin which transports sulfate across cell 
membranes. However, the gene, when mutated, is responsible for 
producing defective pendrin and causing Pendred syndrome. Pendrin 
therefore plays a key role in thyroid function and the development and 
functioning of the auditory system. Learning how pendrin functions 
could lead to a better understanding of thyroid function and the 
development of the auditory system. Finally, the resulting knowledge 
into the genetic basis of Pendred syndrome will allow for improved 
diagnosis of syndrome-specific mutations in at-risk individuals. This 
research has been published in Nature Genetics 1997 December; 
17(4):411-22.

Local Magnetization Spoiling Using A Gradient Insert For Reducing 
The Field Of View In Magnetic Resonance Imaging

DG Wiesler, H Wen, RS Balaban, SD Wolff (NHLBI)

Serial No. 60/043,292 Filed 11 Apr 97
    Licensing Contact: John Fahner-Vihtelic, 301/496-7735, ext. 270.
    The present invention provides a method and device for eliminating 
alias artifacts encountered in MRI when the field of view is made 
smaller than the subject being imaged. Significant

[[Page 30008]]

advantages accrue from reducing the field of view to a smaller region 
of interest. These include reduced imaging time, increased spatial and 
temporal resolution, and less susceptibility to motion artifacts. The 
device operates by dephasing the magnetic resonance signal in regions 
away from the region of interest by means of a gradient insert.

Nitrogen-Containing Cylohetero Cycloalkyl-Aminoaryl Derivatives For 
CNS Disorders

BR DeCosta, et al. (NIDDK)

Serial No. 07/473,008 Filed 31 Jan 90 (U.S. Patent 5,130,330 Issued on 
14 Jul 92); Serial No. 07/877,190 Filed 01 Jul 92 (U.S. Patent 
5,739,158 Issued on 14 Apr 98); Serial No. 08/335,532 Filed 07 Nov 94
    Licensing Contact: Charles Maynard, 301/496-7735, ext. 243.
    This technology includes compositions for a novel family of 
nitrogen containing cyclohetero cycloalkyl-aminoaryl compounds for use 
in the field of clinical neurology. The intellectual property relates 
specifically to a class of therapeutically useful compounds for the 
treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders such as cerebral 
ischemia, psychotic disorders and convulsions. These compounds are 
particularly useful for treating neurotoxic injury which follow periods 
of hypoxia, anoxia or ischemia associated with stroke, cardiac arrest 
or perinatal asphyxia.
    The novel semirigid derivatives (+)-cis-1-[2-phenyl-2-
bicyclo[3,1,0]hexyl]piperidine [(+)-8], its enantiomer (-)-8, and (+-)-
trans-1-[2-phenyl-2-bicylo [3,1,0]piperidine [(+/-)-9] are illustrative 
examples of this family of compounds which may be used to treat CNS 
disorders and diseases such as cerebral ischemia, psychotic disorders 
and convulsions, as well as prevention of neurotoxic damage and 
neurodegenerative disease via a unique receptor mechanism. This class 
of compounds produce neuroprotective effects by a different mechanism 
to phencyclidine and metaphit a non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartic 
acid antagonis.

    Dated: May 21, 1998.
Jack Spiegel,
Director, Division of Technology, Development, and Transfer, Office of 
Technology Transfer.
[FR Doc. 98-14497 Filed 6-1-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-M