[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 125 (Wednesday, June 28, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39915-39916]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-16325]


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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, Public 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.

High-Speed Interlaced Spin Echo Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Jeff Duyn (CC)
DHHS Reference No. E-171-99/0 filed 30 Dec 1999
Licensing Contact: Carol Salata; 301/496-7735 ext. 232; e-mail: 
[email protected]

    Spin-echo acquisition in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) 
facilitates the observation of anatomical abnormalities in pathologies 
such as brain tumors, stroke and multiple sclerosis. It can also be 
applied in conjunction with perfusion techniques for the investigation 
of function, based on susceptibility contrast agents as well as blood 
oxygen level dependent (BOLD) contrast. Improving the efficiency of 
spin echo MRI is the subject of the current invention. It provides a 
method of reducing scan time in multi-slice spin-echo MRI through 
effective use of the echo delay time between radio frequency (RF) 
excitation and reception. This technique has been evaluated in examples 
of brain scans and has indications that a substantial increase in scan 
speed can be achieved without loss in image signal-to-noise ratio or 
contrast.

Laparoscopic Sac Holder Assembly

McClellan M. Walther, Frank Harrington (NCI)
Serial No. 09/368,824 filed 05 Aug 1999
Licensing Contact: John Peter Kim; 301/496-7056 ext. 264; e-mail: 
[email protected]

    The present application describes a device and method for accessing 
and retrieving tissue from a body cavity through minimally invasive 
endoscopic procedures. Specifically, the present invention consists of 
a sac holding device, having a rotatable hinge joining bowed leaf 
elements. The bowed leaf elements form a loop which is adapted to open 
and close the sac by rotation of the bowed leaf elements. With this 
laparoscopic device, one can easily contain materials that have been 
targeted for removal from body cavities. Pieces of infected or 
cancerous tissue and body fluids are easily contained and can be 
removed without the danger of collateral contamination.

Novel Diagnostic Standards for Virus Detection and Quantification

Richard Y. Wang and James W. Shih (CC)
DHHS Reference Nos. E-228-98/0 filed 20 Apr 1999 and E-228-98/1 filed 
20 Apr 2000
Licensing Contact: John Peter Kim; 301/496-7056 ext. 264; e-mail: 
[email protected]

    The gene amplification is a tool for the detection of trace amounts 
of nucleic acids and the clinical applications of this technique in 
diagnosis of human diseases have been widely demonstrated. There are 
numerous steps from sample preparation to final product analysis for 
gene amplification-based molecular diagnosis of clinical specimens. 
Small variations in each step among different samples can have profound 
impacts on the final results.
    There is a need for stable and well-calibrated internal standards 
to enable to monitor every step of the amplification process, e.g., 
sample preparation, gene amplification, and amplicon detection. The 
subject invention is directed to internal standards as recombinant 
viral particles. The particles contain modified target sequence and 
multiple targets can also be packaged. Particles containing RNA target 
sequence of human hepatitis C virus (HCV) were constructed as example. 
Thus, this approach in making internal standards has commercial 
potential in molecular testing for clinical diagnosis, blood screening, 
and process validation.


[[Page 39916]]


    Dated: June 15, 2000.
Jack Spiegel,
Director, Division of Technology Development and Transfer, Office of 
Technology Transfer, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. 00-16325 Filed 6-27-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-P