CLONING: Patent Awarded for Dolly's Technology - Brief Article

Applied Genetics News,  Feb, 2000  

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Geron Corp. (230 Constitution Dr., Menlo Park, CA 94025; Tel: 650/473-7700, Fax: 650/473-7701) recently announced the issuance of two U.K. patents covering nuclear transfer technology, which was used to clone the first animal, the famous sheep Dolly. Geron also announced that the U.S. Patent Office has issued a notice of allowance for a patent application encompassing the same technology.

The patents cover nuclear transfer technology using donor nuclei from quiescent cells, developed by Keith Campbell and Ian Wilmut at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland. The same technology has subsequently been used successfully by a number of other research groups to produce cloned mammals. The patents and the underlying technologies are licensed to Geron from Roslin for a wide range of applications, including use in human regenerative medicine and animal cloning. The license rights were obtained as part of Geron's acquisition of Roslin Bio-Med, Ltd. (now Geron Bio-Med, Ltd.).

The first U.K. patent, GB No. 2318578, has 31 claims directed to methods of nuclear transfer. The claims include broad generic claims to methods of nuclear transfer in which the nucleus of a quiescent donor cell is transferred into a suitable recipient cell. The claims specifically cover instances where scientists might use a somatic cell as the nuclear donor. The patent also covers methods of producing cloned non-human animals and methods of producing animal (i.e., human and non-human) cells by nuclear transfer.

The U.K. Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority and the Human Genetics Advisory Committee has recommended that human therapeutic cloning should be added as a permitted area of embryo research under U.K. law. This recommendation is currently under review.

The second U.K. patent, GB No. 2331751, has 28 claims directed to compositions of matter. The claims of this patent include claims to non-human animal embryos and cloned non-human animals produced using nuclear transfer. In addition, the patent covers non-human and human cell lines made using this technology. Both of the U.K. patents have a priority date of August, 1995.

The allowed U.S. application includes claims pertaining to the use of the nuclear transfer technology to produce cloned non-human mammals, including cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. The claims also cover the use of this technology to produce cell lines.

"The integration of nuclear transfer with our pluripotent stem cell and telomerase immortalization technologies may allow the in vitro production of replacement cells and tissues that would not be rejected by the patient's immune system," notes Thomas Okarma, Geron's president and CEO. "Because the patent coverage extends to the use of the technology in human cells, it provides Geron with the lead proprietary position for such human regenerative medicine techniques."

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