Serologicals reports that the US Patent and Trademark Office awarded a patent for its recently acquired artificial ubiquitous chromatin opening element (UCOE) polynucleotide and related vectors
Serologicals acquired the UCOE gene expression technology, which includes 55 issued and pending patents, on September 30, 2005.
UCOEs improve the yield, consistency and stability of protein production in cultured mammalian cells, allowing simpler and quicker generation of proteins at small scale for drug discovery and research, as well as quicker and easier isolation of stable, highly productive cell lines suitable for larger-scale manufacture of protein therapeutics.
The UCOE that is the subject of this patent family is especially significant because it does not occur in nature.
David Dodd, president and chief executive officer of Serologicals, commented on the receipt of the patent, stating, "Our recent acquisition of the UCOE technology exemplifies our ongoing focus on developing and acquiring innovative technologies that ensure we remain the leader in bioprocessing technologies.
"Our research and development groups will capitalize on this important technology for the benefit of our customers and will introduce it into our own manufacturing processes.
"As a result of having applied these technologies, we anticipate supporting our customer's efforts to produce more consistent products with more efficient bioproduction systems." Dennis Harris, vice president, research and development, business development and chief scientific officer for Serologicals, will be in charge of inquiries about possible out-licensing opportunities using this patented technology.
