[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 236 (Tuesday, December 9, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Page 68639]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-30497]



[[Page 68639]]

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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 invention listed below is owned by an agency of the U.S. 
Government and is 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 any 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.

Human UGRP1 (Uteroglobin-Related Protein 1) Promoter and Its Use

    Shioko Kimura and Tomoaki Nimi (NCI). PCT Application No. PCT/US02/
19456 filed 18 Jun 2002 (with priority to 20 Jun 2001), which published 
as W0 03/000111 on 03 Jan 2003 (DHHS Reference No. E-058-2001/0-PCT-
02). Licensing Contact: Susan Carson; (301) 435-5020; 
[email protected].
    Asthma is a genetically complex, multi-factorial disease affecting 
more than 17 million people in the United States alone and costing 
approximately US$6 billion to treat annually. Identification, mapping 
and linkage analyses of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) have 
been increasingly used both to study the genetic etiology of asthma and 
to detect genetic loci contributing to asthma susceptibility. 
Researchers from the National Cancer Institute have described a novel 
gene, located in an asthma-susceptibility gene loci 5q31-34, named 
UGRP1 (uteroglobin-related protein 1) and an associated polymorphism 
that is significantly associated with asthma (Nimi et al. (2002) Am. J. 
Hum. Genet 70: 718-725).
    UGRP1 is a homodimeric secretory protein of [sim]10 kDA and is 
expressed only in lung and trachea. The -112G/A polymorphism was 
identified in the human UGRP1 gene promoter and is responsible for a 
24% reduction in the promoter activity in relation to the -112G allele, 
as examined by transfection analysis. In a case-control study using 169 
Japanese individuals (84 with asthma and 85 unrelated healthy controls) 
those with a -112A allele (G/A or A/A) were 4.1 times more likely to 
have asthma than were those with the wild-type allele(G/G).
    The invention describes the -112G/A polymorphism and the UGRP1 
promoter region as well as methods for detecting polymorphisms present 
in the UGRP1 promoter which can be used as indicators for diagnosing or 
for predicting a predisposition to develop a respiratory disorder. The 
complex and polygenic nature of asthma suggests that this potential 
asthma susceptibility allele can be of great value not only to 
companies targeting respiratory diseases such as asthma but also to 
those more broadly involved in gene discovery, gene mapping, 
association-based candidate polymorphism testing, pharmacogenetics, 
diagnostics and risk profiling.

    Dated: December 1, 2003.
Steven M. Ferguson,
Director, Division of Technology Development and Transfer, Office of 
Technology Transfer, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. 03-30497 Filed 12-8-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-P