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Patent application filed and patent owned by Kaneka Corporation and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

Technology overview

Kaneka Corporation (chemical R&D company in the field of plastics, pharmaceuticals and synthetic fibers, headquarters in Osaka, Japan) and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (NIAIST, research organization spun off from Ministry of International Trade and Industry in April 2001, fields of research include life sciences, IT, environment and energy, nanotechnology, geoscience and metrology) jointly conducted research on developing a bioassay system to detect hazardous chemical substances or natural toxic substances in the environment.  It involved production of transgenic Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells containing the mouse heat shock protein (HSP47) promoter and specificity protein 1 (SP1) factor binding DNA sequence linked to ß-galactosidase and SV40pA (polyadenylation signal for enhanced reporter expression in mammalian cells), the technology of which was filed as patent applications in the US and Japan.  According to the Japanese patent application JP 2003/079365, this research was published in the Abstracts of the JSWE Annual Meeting published by the Japan Society on Water Environment on 14 Mar 2001.

Details of patent documents

Patent or Publication no. Title, Independent Claims and Summary Assignee and licensing information
US 2003/049737

  • Earliest priority – 7 Sept 2001
  • Filed – 11 Mar 2002
  • Granted as US 6740521 (see below)
  • Expected expiry – not applicable
 Title – High-sensitive detection of environmental pollutants

Claim 1
A cell which is obtained by transfer of

  • a promoter containing a heat shock factor binding DNA sequence and
  • a transcriptional regulatory sequence necessary on an occasion of stress induction as a transcriptional regulatory factor binding site, as well as
  • a reporter gene under the control of said promoter into a chromosome,

said reporter gene
– being connected, on the downstream side thereof, to the SV40pA signal without any intervening intron, and
– which is used for detecting chemicals or natural toxins which disrupt or disturb homeostasis in organisms, by measuring said reporter gene protein inducing activity.

The claims are generally drawn towards:

  • a cell obtained by transfer of a promoter, a transcriptional regulatory sequence, and a reporter gene with SV40pA (claim 1)

Definitions extracted from the specification are provided in US 6740521.

Comments:

Since this is a published application and not a granted patent, there are no enforceable rights.

 Kaneka Corporation

KITA-KU, OSAKA-SHI
2-4 NAKANOSHIMA 3-CHOME
OSAKA 530-8288, JAPAN
Ph +81-6-6226-5050
Fax +81-6-6226-5037

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology

KITA-KU, OSAKA-SHI
3-1 KASUMIGASEKI 1-CHOME
CHIYODA-KU, TOKYO 100-0013, JAPAN
Ph +81-3-5501-0900
US 6740521

  • Earliest priority – 7 Sept 2001
  • Filed – 11 Mar 2002
  • Granted – 25 May 2004
  • Expected expiry – 11 Mar 2022
 Title – High-sensitive detection of environmental pollutants

Claim 1
A cell which is obtained by transfer of

  • a promoter containing a heat shock factor binding DNA sequence and
  • a transcriptional regulatory sequence which functions in response to stress induction of a protein as a transcriptional regulatory factor binding site, as well as
  • a reporter gene under the control of said promoter into a chromosome,

said reporter gene

– being connected, on the downstream side thereof, to the SV40pA signal without any intervening intron, and
– which is usable for detecting chemicals or natural toxins which disrupt or disturb homeostasis in organisms, by measuring a protein inducing activity of said reporter gene, wherein

  • the promoter containing the heat shock factor binding DNA sequence and the transcriptional regulatory sequence which functions on the occasion of stress induction of a protein as the transcriptional regulatory factor binding site, is an HSP47 promoter containing the heat shock factor binding DNA sequence and an SP1 factor binding sequence.

The claims are generally drawn towards:

  • a cell obtained by transfer of the HSP47 promoter containing the heat shock factor binding DNA sequence, an SP1 factor binding sequence, and a reporter gene with SV40pA (claim 1)

Definitions extracted from the specification are:

  • A cell – refers to as a stable transformant as distinguished from a cell in a transient expression system.
  • Transcriptional regulatory sequence (necessary on an occasion of stress induction) – which functions on the occasion of stress induction of a protein but not transcriptional regulatory sequence which functions independently of stress induction (specifically the AP-1 binding DNA sequence or the NF-B binding DNA sequence).
  • Natural toxins – Preferably… a toxin produced by blue-green algae.

Comments:

The promoter sequence and transcriptional regulatory sequence in the granted US 6740521 have been limited to HSP47 and SP1 factor binding sequence, respectively.
Remark Related application in Japan (JP 2003/079365) is pending.

Search strategy

Search details
Date of search 09/06/2006
Database searched Patent Lens
Type of search Simple, stemming off
Collections searched AU-B, US-A, US-B, EP-B, WO
Search term ((inducible near/10 stress) or (induced near/10 stress)) and ((promoter in title) or (promoter in abstract)) and plant and phosphorus
Results 25
Comments Of the 25 results identified using these search terms, one result was identified as being of particular interest based on their abstracts and a review of their claims.