Asuragen, Inc., a leader in the development of molecular diagnostics, announced today that it had received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") for claims related to the use of mir-205 as a diagnostic in lung cancer. Human mir-205 has been identified as being highly expressed in lung cancer when compared with its expression in normal lung tissue, and, as a result, is an excellent marker for use as a diagnostic for lung cancer. Asuragen has a broad IP portfolio with over 69 issued and pending patents related to miRNA including some of the earliest functional diagnostic applications for a number of key miRNAs associated with oncology diseases.
“This allowance from the USPTO highlights the early work we did in the newly emerging field of microRNAs and it supports our continuing development work towards novel miRNA-based molecular diagnostics for cancer.”
"miRNAs are a category of biomarkers whose importance is increasingly being recognized as is evidenced by the explosion in the number of publications regarding miRNAs. We started working on miRNAs in 2002 prior to our selling Ambion and are pleased that the first, of what is a large portfolio of pending patents, are starting to issue," said Matt Winkler, CEO and CSO of Asuragen. "This allowance from the USPTO highlights the early work we did in the newly emerging field of microRNAs and it supports our continuing development work towards novel miRNA-based molecular diagnostics for cancer." This follows closely on the heels of a Notice of Allowance received by Yale University for its let7 patent portfolio for which Asuragen is the exclusive licensee in the fields of diagnostics.
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