[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 52 (Tuesday, March 18, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12915-12916]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-6441]


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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.

Methods for Prophylaxis and Treatment of HER-2/neu Tumors

John C. Morris, Jay A. Berzofsky, Yoshio Sakai, Jong-Myun Park, Masake 
Terabe (all of NCI).
Serial No. 60/422,395 filed 30 Oct 2002.
Licensing Contact: Susan S. Rucker; 301/435-4478; [email protected].

    This application relates to methods for cancer prophylaxis and 
treatment. More particularly, the application relates to methods for 
the treatment and prophylaxis of cancers caused by the activity of the 
HER-2/neu/erbB-2 gene employing immunotherapy. Such cancers include 
breast cancers, cancers of the female genital tract and some cancers of 
the gastrointestinal tract.
    The methods claimed involve the use of a HER-2/neu vaccine 
employing recombinant non-replicating adenovirus expressing a HER-2/
neu/erbB-2 gene. In a preferred embodiment the vaccine comprises a 
recombinant non-replicating adenoviral vector encoding a HER-2/neu/
erbB-2 gene that is expressed as a truncated HER-2/neu/erbB-2 protein. 
Antigen presenting cells, such as dendritic cells infected with the 
recombinant adenoviral vector, process and present the truncated HER-2/
neu/erbB-2 protein, thereby stimulating an immune response. Preferred 
HER-2/neu/erbB-2 proteins contain regions of the extracellular domain 
and the transmembrane domain of the intact HER-2/neu/erbB-2 gene 
product and do not contain any tyrosine kinase domains.
    This work has not yet been published.

gp100 Cancer Antigens

Steven A. Rosenberg et al. (NCI).
U.S. Patent 5,844,075 issued 10 Dec. 1998.
Licensing Contact: Jonathan Dixon; 301/435-5559; [email protected].

    DHHS announces the availability of select gp100 cancer antigens for 
licensing. These antigens are composed of a class that fall under the 
following definition: gp100 P Core Peptide(s), meaning any gp100 
peptide of nine (9) to fifteen (15) amino acids in length which is 
capable of eliciting an HLA-A2.1-restricted cytotoxic T cell response, 
and which comprises the formula 
X1X2X3PGPX5TX4, 
where X1 is any naturally occurring amino acid, 
X2 is any hydrophobic aliphatic amino acid; X3 is 
any naturally occurring amino acid; X4 is any hydrophobic 
aliphatic amino acid, and X5 is the amino acid V, C, I, L, 
or M.
    GP100 is a tumor specific melanoma antigen. GP100 has been shown to 
be successful in stimulating the immune response to melanoma in humans.

[[Page 12916]]

Novel Cyclic Polyamines That Release Nitric Oxide in a Biphasic Manner

David Waterhouse et al. (NCI).
DHHS Reference No. E-189-2002/0 filed 07 May 2002.
Licensing Contact: Norbert Pontzer; 301/435-5502; e-mail: 
[email protected].

    Nitric oxide (NO), a simple diatomic molecule, plays a diverse and 
complex role in cellular physiology. Although medical research is 
rapidly discovering potential therapeutic uses for NO, the exogenous 
administration of gaseous NO is not feasible because of low solubility 
in physiological buffers, widespread pharmacological actions and a 
short half-life in the body. NCI scientists have previously produced a 
number of nucleophile/nitric oxide adducts (diazeniumdiolates) that 
spontaneously dissociate at physiological pH to release nitric oxide 
(NO) by stable first order kinetics. These compounds allow for the 
localized action of NO by, for example, having NO released from 
biocompatible medical devices coated with the NO-releasing compounds or 
polymers. The half-life of NO release from currently available 
compounds and polymers can vary from minutes to many hours under 
physiological conditions. However, it could be useful to have an 
initial high rate of NO release followed by a subsequent slower longer 
term release from a single compound. These inventors have now 
discovered polydiazeniumdiolated materials that, as single crystals 
compounds, provide the multiple multiphasic NO release necessary to 
accomplish that goal. They also provide medical uses of these compounds 
such as treatment of infection, inhibition of tumor cell growth, 
conjugation to antibodies, treatment of ischemia/repurfusion injury, 
attachment to polymers, and medical substrates such as stents coated 
with these compounds.

    Dated: March 11, 2003.
Steven M. Ferguson,
Acting Director, Division of Technology Development and Transfer, 
Office of Technology Transfer, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. 03-6441 Filed 3-17-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-P