Nanogen announces new patents for inventions related to diabetes and Alzheimer's disease biomarkers

Nanogen has announced that it has been issued four patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for inventions related to diabetes and Alzheimer's disease biomarkers.

The current patents are the most recent in a series describing biomarkers associated with these diseases.

U.S. Patent No. 7,125, 678, "Protein biopolymer markers predictive of type II diabetes," U.S. Patent No. 7, 097,989, "Complement C3 precursor biomarker predictive of type II diabetes," and U.S. Patent No. 7,094,549, "Fibronectin biopolymer marker indicative of insulin resistance," relate to the use of mass spectrometry and time-of-flight detection to identify biopolymers that characterize type II diabetes. These markers could potentially be used in applications of disease risk assessment and development of therapeutic avenues.

In addition, U.S. Patent No. 7,101,680 "Method for detecting the presence of monomeric brain associated human glutamine synthetase," relates to a method for detecting a biochemical marker, human glutamine synthetase, by immunoassay as a potential diagnostic for Alzheimer's disease. In addition, a method for distinguishing between AD and non-AD dementia is disclosed.