CAMBRIDGE, UK (2008-06-17) – ProteinLogic Ltd. (‘the Company’), announced today that its diagnostic testing method Australian Patent Application (No: 2003219275) has been deemed patentable by the Australian Patent Office (Australian Government IP Australia). The Company has been informed by its patent attorney that the patent is now expected to grant within the next month.
Having been the subject of a Notice of Acceptance dated 15th January 2008, the application was advertised in the Australian Official Journal of Patents on 24th January 2008. Following an opposition period that expired on 24th April 2008, the Company was informed that no objections had been filed.
The decision by the Australian patent office Australian Government IP Australia that the diagnostic testing method is patentable represents the first endorsement of the intellectual property underpinning the Company’s technology. The applications filed in other global territories, including the US, are pending.
“The news that the ProteinLogic Australian patent application is expected to grant in the next month is a milestone event for the company” said Dr Richard Cumming, Marketing Director.
Unlike most diagnostic tests that measure only a single or a small number of proteins, ProteinLogic utilises a monoclonal antibody biochip (ImmiChip) combined with high-throughput multiplexing technology to measure multiple blood proteins in parallel. Pattern recognition software developed at Cambridge University is then used to analyse databases of protein profiles to generate disease-specific barcodes or ‘fingerprints’.
The technology was developed by Dr César Milstein and Dr Adrian Woolfson at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and Professor Nick Hales from the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. The technology is based partly on Milstein’s discovery of immune cell surface antigens and his work on monoclonal antibodies, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology.
The research was initially funded by a Medical Research Council Development Gap Grant, a Cambridge University Challenge Fund Grant and a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) government SMART award. Following this the Company has completed three successful private placements.
The patent was filed by the University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Hospital NHS Trust and the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology. The Company was granted an exclusive worldwide licence to the ‘sCD fingerprint’ patent by the University of Cambridge Research Services Division Technology Transfer to further develop this diagnostic testing system.