Senomyx issued new U.S. patent for "T1R taste receptors and genes encoding same"

Jul 12 2007

Senomyx, Inc. has announced the issuance by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office of U.S. Patent No. 7,241, 880, "T1R Taste Receptors and Genes Encoding Same."

The new patent contains broad claims covering the human T1R2 taste receptor, which responds to the taste of both natural and synthetic sweet compounds. The patent extends the intellectual property protection provided by Senomyx's previously issued U.S. Patent No. 6,955,887, "Use of T1R Hetero-Oligomeric Taste Receptor to Screen for Compounds that Modulate Taste Signaling" and U.S. Patent No. 7,223,551, "T1R3 Receptor Binding Assays For Identification of Taste Modulatory Compounds," which have broad-based claims that cover novel techniques for using the human sweet taste receptor as the basis for assay systems that are more efficient than traditional flavor discovery procedures.

"The human sweet taste receptor is composed of two subunits, hT1R2 and hT1R3," explained Mark Zoller, Ph.D., Senomyx's Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President of Discovery and Development. "Senomyx's pioneering work in clarifying the structure and function of the human sweet taste receptor has led to issued patents covering the sequences that encode each of the subunits, as well as subunit variants. The patents also cover the use of the receptor subunits in assays designed to identify new flavor ingredients that enhance or impart sweet taste. Senomyx is using these proprietary assays to screen our expansive libraries of nearly half a million natural extracts and synthetic compounds in an effort to discover new sweet taste enhancers and high potency sweeteners."

Senomyx's Sweet Enhancer Program is intended to provide novel flavor ingredients that enhance the taste of natural and artificial sweeteners and enable a significant reduction of added sweeteners in foods and beverages. The Company's complementary High Potency Sweetener Program is focused on identifying novel low- or non-caloric natural high potency sweeteners that provide improved taste and physical properties compared to currently available products. The flavor ingredients resulting from these programs may have applications in multiple product categories such as confectionaries, cereal, ice cream, beverages, yogurt, desserts, spreads, and bakery products, each of which represents a sizeable commercial market opportunity.

"Senomyx is now the owner or exclusive licensee of 88 issued patents and 323 pending patent applications in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere." said Kent Snyder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Senomyx. "We view our intellectual property portfolio as an important asset that helps the Company establish collaborative agreements with market-leading food and beverage companies. Senomyx currently has product discovery and development collaborations with seven of the world's foremost packaged food and beverage companies: Ajinomoto, Cadbury Schweppes, Campbell Soup Company, The Coca-Cola Company, Kraft Foods, Nestle, and Solae. We intend to continue to leverage Senomyx's proprietary technologies and capabilities to enter into additional partnerships with preeminent companies that are looking to gain a competitive advantage for their products."