Notice: Government-Owned Inventions; Availability for Licensing

Federal Register: May 6, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 88)             
                  Page 25018-25019

AGENCY: National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: The inventions listed below are owned by an agency of the U.S. 
Government and are available for licensing in the U.S. in accordance 
with 35 U.S.C. 207 to achieve expeditious commercialization of results 
of federally-funded research and development. Foreign patent 
applications are filed on selected inventions to extend market coverage 
for companies and may also be available for licensing.

ADDRESSES: Licensing information and copies of the U.S. patent 
applications listed below may be obtained by writing to the indicated 
licensing contact at the Office of Technology Transfer, National 
Institutes of Health, 6011 Executive Boulevard, Suite 325, Rockville, 
Maryland 20852-3804; telephone: 301-496-7057; fax: 301-402-0220. A 
signed Confidential Disclosure Agreement will be required to receive 
copies of the patent applications.

Human Papillomavirus microRNA Diagnostics and Therapeutics

    Description of Technology: Available for licensing and commercial 
development are patent rights that cover the uses of a p53 specific 
microRNA (miRNA). It has been reported that the tumor suppressive mRNA 
miR-34a (a downstream target of p53) is downregulated in HPV-infected 
primary keratinocytes. miR-34a arrests the cell cycle at G2 phase and 
promotes apoptosis. Therapeutic restoration of normal expression levels 
of miR-34a and/or simultaneous stabilization of p53 (inhibited by HPV 
E6) induces miR-34a accumulation in G0/G1 phase and can arrest tumor 
growth. Neoplasia and cancer cell progression has also been associated 
with p18Ink4c overexpression which can be regulated with the 
introduction of a therapeutic amount of miR-34a. Tumor reduction/
suppression by down regulating p18Ink4c is also a therapeutic benefit 
provided by this invention.
    Applications: Cervical cancer; Human papillomavirus; Therapeutics.
    Inventors: Zhi-Ming Zheng and Xiaohong Wang (NCI).
    Publications:
    1. WO Lui et al. Patterns of known and novel small RNAs in human 
cervical cancer. Cancer Res. 2007 Jul 1;67(13):6031-6043.
    2. I Martinez et al. Human papillomavirus type 16 reduces the 
expression of microRNA-218 in cervical carcinoma cells. Oncogene 2007 
Nov 12; Advance online publication, doi:10.1038/sj.onc.1210919.
    Patent Status:
    U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/983,368 filed 29 Oct 2007 (HHS 
Reference No. E-029-2008/0-US-01).
    U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/041,842 filed 02 Apr 2008 (HHS 
Reference No. E-029-2008/1-US-01).
    Licensing Status: Available for licensing.
    Licensing Contact: Michael A. Shmilovich, Esq.; 301-435-5019; 
shmilovm@mail.nih.gov.
    Collaborative Research Opportunity: The National Cancer Institute 
HIV and AIDS Malignancy Branch is seeking statements of capability or 
interest from parties interested in collaborative research to further 
develop, evaluate, or commercialize HPV-induced aberrant expression of 
microRNAs for cervical cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. Please 
contact John D. Hewes, PhD at 301-435-3121 or hewesj@mail.nih.gov for 
more information.

Microarray Binding Sensors Using Carbon Nanotube Transistors

    Description of Technology: Available for licensing and commercial 
development are: (a) An apparatus containing microarray binding sensors 
having biological probe materials and carbon nanotube transistors 
(CNTs) and (b) various methods of using the highly sensitive CNTs for 
the electronic detection of nucleic acid hybridization for performing 
microarray gene expression experiments and detection of DNA-DNA, DNA-
RNA, Peptide Nucleic Acid (PNA) -DNA, PNA-RNA, DNA-protein or PNA-
protein binding. By analogy to the microarray concept, each transistor 
is associated with a distinct probe oligonucleotide. Each transistor is 
operated as a field effect transistor (FET) and the transconductance 
between the source and drain electrodes is measured before and after a 
hybridization event. The expected advantages are, besides higher 
sensitivity and ease of use, the elimination of chemical labeling and 
enzymatic manipulation and the further miniaturization. The unique 
distinction of this design over other CNT-based biomolecular sensing 
schemes is the complete isolation of the CNTs from chemical reactions 
concomitant with probe immobilization and target capture, and the CNTs 
functioning only as charge sensors. In contrast, current methods rely 
on enzymatic amplification of nucleic acids, fluorescent labeled 
targets, hybridization, amplification of signal and detection by 
optical scanners, which are time consuming and have limited 
sensitivity.
    Applications: The apparatus and method can be used for numerous 
applications, among them: High-throughput monitoring of genome-wide

[[Page 25019]]

DNA, mRNA copy number changes; sequencing of DNA; miRNA levels in 
cancer; or identifying targets of transcription factors.
    Furthermore, given the intensity of effort in linking gene 
expression with diseases, it is only a matter of time before diagnosis 
and prognosis of certain ailments can be performed on the basis of gene 
expression. At the present, most such analyses require costly apparatus 
and labor-intensive laboratory procedures.
    Development Status: In the process of developing prototypes.
    Inventors: Javed Khan (NCI) et al.
    Publications:
    1. H Pandana, KH Aschenbach, D Lenski, M Fuhrer, J Khan, RD Gomez. 
A versatile biomolecular charge based sensor using oxide-gated carbon 
nanotube transistor arrays. IEEE Sens J., Special Issue, July 2008, in 
press.
    2. K Aschenbach, H Pandana, J Lee, J Khan, M Fuhrer, D Lenski, RD 
Gomez. Detection of nucleic acid hybridization via oxide gated carbon 
nanotube field effect transistors (invited). Proceedings of SPIE MEMS 
and Nanotechnologies, Volume 6959 (2008), in press.
    Patent Status:
    U.S. Patent Application No. 60/743,524 filed 17 Mar 2006 (HHS 
Reference No. E-056-2007/0-US-01).
    PCT Application No. PCT/US2007/06809 filed 19 Mar 2007, which 
published as WO 2007/109228 on 27 Sep 2007 (HHS Reference No. E-056-
2007/0-PCT-02).
    U.S. Patent Application No. 11/723,369 filed 19 Mar 2007 (HHS 
Reference No. E-056-2007/0-US-03).
    Licensing Status: Available for non-exclusive or exclusive 
licensing.
    Licensing Contact: Cristina Thalhammer-Reyero, Ph.D., M.B.A.; 301-
435-4507; thalhamc@mail.nih.gov.
    Collaborative Research Opportunity: The Oncogenomics Section, 
Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, is seeking 
statements of capability or interest from parties interested in 
collaborative research to further develop, evaluate, or commercialize 
electrical detection of nucleic acid and protein levels. Please contact 
Javed Khan, M.D. at 301-435-2937 or khanjav@mail.nih.gov for more 
information.

Segmenting Colon Wall Via Level Set Techniques

    Description of Technology: Virtual Colonoscopy (VC) has become a 
more prevalent and accepted method of colorectal cancer diagnosis. An 
essential element for detecting cancerous polyps using VC, in 
conjunction with computer-aided detection, is the accurate segmentation 
of the colon wall. While the inner boundary of the colon wall, the 
lumen-mucosal boundary, has often been the focus of previous 
segmentation work, detection of the outer wall, the serosal tissue 
boundary, allows for the segmentation of the colon wall, which is 
useful in determining potential polyps, muscular hypertrophy, and 
diverticulitis of the colon. Unfortunately, automatic determination of 
the outer colon wall position often is difficult due to the low 
contrast between CT attenuation values of the colon wall and the 
surrounding fat tissue. This invention is a level set based method to 
determine, from a CT colonography (CTC) scan, the location of the colon 
serosal tissue boundary. After determining this location, the algorithm 
segments the entire colon wall at subvoxel accurate precision.
    In this algorithm, the loops in the colon caused by over-distention 
are detected and removed when the centerline calculation is performed. 
Also, a newly developed method for the detection and segmentation of 
the outer wall of the colon is used to connect collapsed portions where 
the lumen segmentation failed to produce a connected centerline. These 
two methods allow for a complete and accurate centerline to be 
calculated in uniformly distended colons as well as colons containing 
segments which are over and/or under-distended.
    Applications: Diagnostics.
    Inventors: Robert L. Van Uitert, Ronald M. Summers, Ingmar Bitter 
(CC).
    Publications:
    1. R Van Uitert, I Bitter. Subvoxel precise skeletons of volumetric 
data based on fast marching methods. Med Phys. 2007 Feb;34(2):627-638.
    2. RL Van Uitert, RM Summers. Automatic correction of level set 
based subvoxel precise centerlines for virtual colonoscopy using the 
colon outer wall. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2007 Aug;26(8):1069-1078.
    3. RM Summers, J Yao, PJ Pickhardt, M Franaszek, I Bitter, D 
Brickman, V Krishna, JR Choi. Computed tomographic virtual colonoscopy 
computer-aided polyp detection in a screening population. 
Gastroenterology. 2005 Dec;129(6):1832-1844.
    4. R Van Uitert, I Bitter, RM Summers, JR Choi, PJ Pickhardt. 
Quantitative assessment of colon distention for polyp detection in CT 
virtual colonoscopy. Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. (2006) 6143,61431B:451-
457; published online 13 Mar 2006, doi 10.1117/12.653205.
    5. R Van Uitert, I Bitter, RM Summers. Detection of colon wall 
outer boundary and segmentation of the colon wall based on level set 
methods. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2006;1:3017-3020.
    6. G Iordanescu, RM Summers. Benefits of centerline analysis for CT 
colonography computer-aided polyp detection. Proc SPIE Int Soc Opt Eng. 
(2003) 5031:388-397; published online 02 May 2003, doi:10.1117/
12.485797.
    7. G Iordanescu, RM Summers. Automated centerline for computed 
tomography colonography. Acad Radiol. 2003 Nov;10(11):1291-1301.
    Patent Status: U.S. Patent Application No. 11/810,704 filed 05 Jun 
2007 (HHS Reference No. E-298-2006/0-US-01).
    Licensing Status: Available for licensing.
    Licensing Contact: Michael A. Shmilovich, Esq.; 301-435-5019; 
shmilovm@mail.nih.gov.

    Dated: April 28, 2008.
Steven M. Ferguson,
Director, Division of Technology Development and Transfer, Office of 
Technology Transfer, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. E8-9871 Filed 5-5-08; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4140-01-P