[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 58 (Tuesday, March 26, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18354-18355]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-06836]


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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, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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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.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 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.

Infectious Hepatitis E Virus Genotype 3 Recombinants--Prospective 
Vaccine Candidates and Vector System

    Description of Technology: This technology is a recombinant, 
infectious genotype 3 Hepatitis E virus (HEV) that has been adapted to 
grow in cell culture and can potentially be used to develop vaccines 
against HEV or as a vector system to insert exogenous sequences into 
HEV. The virus (strain Kernow-C1, genotype 3) originated from a 
chronically infected human subject and was adapted to grow in human 
hepatoma cells. The adapted virus is unique in that it contains an 
insertion of a portion of a human ribosomal protein in Open Reading 
Frame 1 of the virus. Desired exogenous sequences can potentially be 
placed in lieu of the insert without inactivating the virus.
    Infection by HEV is a relevant health issue in a number of 
developing countries and is also an emerging food-borne disease of 
industrialized countries. Genotype 1 and 2 infections are found 
exclusively in humans while genotype 3 and 4 viruses have been found 
not only in humans, but also swine, deer, mongoose, cattle, and 
rabbits. In particular, genotype 3 and 4 viruses are ubiquitously found 
in swine and undercooked pork is thought to be one of the sources of 
infection for cases of human infections in industrialized countries.
    Potential Commercial Applications:
     An infectious, recombinant HEV genotype 3 cDNA clone that 
could potentially be developed into a vaccine candidate.
     HEV Vector Platform--Desired exogenous sequences can be 
inserted into the viral genome without inactivating the virus.
    Competitive Advantages:
     Most of the HEV vaccines under development are subunit 
based while the subject technology could potentially be developed into 
a live, attenuated virus based vaccine.
     Ability to insert exogenous sequences into the viral 
genome without inactivating the virus makes this subject technology a 
potential HEV based vector platform.
    Development Stage:
     Early stage.

[[Page 18355]]

     Pre-clinical.
     In vitro data available.
    Inventors: Suzanne U. Emerson, Priyanka Shukla, Hanh T. Nguyen, and 
Robert H. Purcell (NIAID).
    Publication: Shukla P, et al. Cross-species infections of cultured 
cells by hepatitis E virus and discovery of an infectious virus-host 
recombinant. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Feb 8;108(6):2438-2443. 
[PMID 21262830].
    Intellectual Property: HHS Reference No. E-074-2011/2--PCT 
Application PCT/US2012/020830 filed 10 Jan 2012.
    Licensing Contact: Kevin W. Chang, Ph.D.; 301-435-5018; 
[email protected].
    Collaborative Research Opportunity: The National Institute of 
Allergy and Infectious Diseases is seeking statements of capability or 
interest from parties interested in collaborative research to further 
develop, evaluate or commercialize hepatitis E virus vaccines. For 
collaboration opportunities, please contact Maryann Puglielli, Ph.D., 
J.D. at 301-451-6863 or [email protected].

Composite Probes and Use Thereof in Super Resolution Microscopy

    Description of Technology: The technology is in the field of 
fluorescence microscopy. More specifically, the invention describes and 
claims the compo site probes for super resolution optical techniques 
using super resolution via transiently activated quenchers (STAQ). The 
compo site probes include a donor moiety and an acceptor moiety joined 
by a linker. The acceptor moiety, when excited by incident radiation, 
is excited to a state which, for example, absorbs in the donor emission 
region, such that the acceptor moiety in its excited state quenches at 
least a portion of the donor moiety emission. Other transiently 
activated quenching mechanisms and moieties could accomplish the same 
task by reducing donor population. Also disclosed are methods for 
irradiating a selected region of a target material including the compo 
site probe, wherein the compo site probe enables improved resolution by 
point spread function modification.
    Potential Commercial Applications:
     Ultrafine imaging for biomolecules, vesicles and 
organelles, particularly of living biological samples, in biomedical 
research.
     Potential applications in clinical diagnostics.
     Nanoscopic Lithography--STAQ compo sites could, in 
principle, control polymerization of photoresist masks to make feature 
sizes below 20nm.
    Competitive Advantages: Improved ultrafine imaging--
     Imaging objects as small as 10 nm.
     Narrow the point spread function.
     STAQ uses less power, making live cell study practical at 
theoretically high resolution.
    Development Stage:
     The invention is fully developed.
     Need to build multicolor palette that can be integrated 
into a commercial microscope.
     May need to make certain protein chimeras and 
photoinitiators for validation.
    Inventors: Jay R Knutson and Gary L. Griffiths (NHLBI).
    Publications:
    1. Doose S, et al. Probing polyproline structure and dynamics by 
photoinduced electron transfer provides evidence for deviations from a 
regular polyproline type II helix. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2007 Oct 
30;104(44):17400-5. [PMID 17956989]
    2. Schuler B, et al. Polyproline and the ``spectroscopic ruler'' 
revi sited with single-molecule fluorescence. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 
2005 Feb 22;102(8):2754-9. [PMID 15699337]
    3. Best RB, et al. Effect of flexibility and cis residues in 
single-molecule FRET studies of polyproline. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 
2007 Nov 27;104(48):18964-9. [PMID 18029448]
    4. Sahoo H, et al. A 10-A spectroscopic ruler applied to short 
polyprolines. J Am Chem Soc. 2007 Aug 8;129(31):9762-72. [PMID 
17629273]
    5. Li L, et al. Achieving lambda/20 resolution by one-color 
initiation and deactivation of polymerization. Science. 2009 May 
15;324(5929):892-3. [PMID 19359543]
    6. Hell SW. Far-field optical nanoscopy. Science. 2007 May 
25;316(5828):1153-8. [PMID 19525330]
    7. Masia F, et al. Resonant four-wave mixing of gold nanoparticles 
for three-dimensional cell microscopy. Opt Lett. 2009 Jun 
15;34(12):1816-8. [PMID 19529713]
    8. Schmidt R, et al. Mitochondrial cristae revealed with focused 
light. Nano Lett. 2009 Jun;9(6):2508-10. [PMID 19459703]
    Intellectual Property: HHS Reference No. E-253-2009/0--U.S. Patent 
Application No. 13/519,737 filed 28 Jun 2012
    Licensing Contact: Michael A. Shmilovich, Esq., CLP; 301-435-5019; 
[email protected]
    Collaborative Research Opportunity: The National Heart, Lung and 
Blood Institute, Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, is also seeking 
statements of capability or interest from parties interested in 
collaborative partnerships to further develop, evaluate, or 
commercialize this technology. Please contact Brian Bailey, Ph.D. at 
[email protected] for more information.

    Dated: March 18, 2013.
Richard U. Rodriguez,
Director, Division of Technology Development and Transfer, Office of 
Technology Transfer, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. 2013-06836 Filed 3-25-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-P