NEW PATENTS

This section contains abstracts and, where appropriate, illustrations of recently issued United States patents and published patent application filed from over 30 countries under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. This information was obtained from recent additions to the PATSEARCH" online database in accordance with interest profiles developed by the Editors.

Further information about online patent searching can be obtained from Research on Demand, Inc., 2421 Fourth Street, Ste. C., Berkeley, CA 94710, U.S.A. [Tel. 510-841 1145; Fax 510-841 6311].

Mutation/Genetic Engineering Techniques

5270957

C O M P O S I T E R A N D O M S A M P L I N G

L Craig Murray assigned to Southern California Edison Co

An element is sampled from a defined group so that targeting can be effected within a range bet- ween a range greater than a first desired fre- quency and not more than a second desired frequency. Two data bases are established. The second data base contains elements not selected from the first data base. The element set for tar- geting is defined between element sets from the first data base and the second data base, thereby creating a composite random sampling of the elements. Testing can be effected on the target elements.

5270960

T E M P E R A T U R E C O M P E N S A T I O N D E V I C E F O R AN A N G U L A R

V E L O C I T Y S E N S O R

is compensated for by an offset value determined on the base of a value readout from a memory table storing therein characteristic offset values varying with the internal temperature of the sensor body.

5275815

B A C I L L U S T H U R I N G I E N S I O N R R L B-18721 A C T I V E A G A I N S T

D I P T E R A N P E S T S

Jewel M Payne assigned to Mycogen Corpora- tion

Disclosed and claimed is a novel Bacillus thuringiensis isolate designated B.t. NRRL B- 18721 which has activity against dipteran insect pests. Thus, this isolate, or mutants thereof, can be used to control such insect pests. Further, genes encoding novel delta-endotoxins can be removed from the isolate and transferred to other host microbes, or plants. Expression of the delta-endotoxins in such hosts results in the con- trol of susceptible insect pests in the environment of such hosts.

Masayuki Ikegami, Fumitaka Takahashi, Akira Iiboshi, Tomoyuki Nishio, Sinichi Tomiyama, Hirotatsu Tsuchida, Ryoichi Tsuchiya, Saitama, Japan assigned to Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

An angular velocity sensor wherein an internal temperature of the sensor body is sensed by a temperature sensor and adjusted to be equal to a preset value; an offset value is obtained from an output of the angular velocity sensor at the pre- set internal temperature with no angular velocity acting thereon and an angular velocity signal at the preset internal temperature is compensated for by the obtained offset value; and also an angular velocity detection signal obtained before the internal temperature reaches the preset value

5275933

T R I P L E G R A D I E N T P R O C E S S F O R R E C O V E R I N G N U C L E A T E D

F E T A L C E L L S F R O M M A T E R N A L B L O O D

Nelson N H Teng, Neelima M Bhat, Marcia M Bieber assigned to The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University

Nucleated fetal cells such as nucleated fetal red blood cells are separated from maternal blood with a discontinuous triple gradient gel and cen- trifugation. Nucleated fetal red blood cells are collected at an interface between a gel layer

557

558 PATENT ABSTRACTS

having a density in the range of from 1.105 to 1.110 g/mL and the second layer having a density in the range of from 1.075 to 1.085 g/mL, and maternal granulocytes are collected at an inter- face between a gel layer having a density in the range of from 1.115 to 1.125 g/mL and a layer having a density in the range of from 1.105 to 1.110 g/mL. This allows separation of fetal cells for testing from the maternal blood rather than the placenta or amniotic fluid, reducing the risk of sample collection and facilitating routine testing of fetal cells for evidence of genetic defects.

5275940

P R O C E S S F O R P R O D U C I N G L - T R Y P T O P H A N B Y C U L T U R I N G

A C O R Y N E B A C T E R I U M G L U T A M I C U M M U T A N T

Kuniki Kino, Kazuhiro Furukawa, Yasuhir Tomiyoshi, Yoshiyuki Kuratsu, Hofu, Japan as- signed to Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co Ltd

Disclosed is a process for producing L- tryptophan which comprises culturing in a medium a microorganism belonging to the genus Corynebacterium or Brevibacterium having resistance to an aminoquinoline derivative or a phenothiazine derivative and an ability to pro- duce L-tryptophan until L-tryptophan is ac- cumulated in the culture and recovering L- tryptophan therefrom.

5275942

M A M M A L I A N C E L L - B A S E D D N A L I B R A R I E S

Jean-Michel Vos assigned to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A recombinant plasmid useful for the produc- tion of large-insert, stably maintained, episomes in mammalian cells is disclosed, along with cells, DNA libraries, and methods of using the same. The plasmid comprises a lymphotrophic herpes virus segment (e.g., an Epstein-Barr virus seg- ment) containing an origin of plasmid replica- tion (oriP) and a heterologous insert segment linked to the lymphotrophic herpes virus seg- ment. The heterologous insert segment has a length of at least 100 kilobases. In a preferred embodiment, the lymphotrophic herpes virus segment is capable of producing infectious

virions in a suitable host cell, and the lympho- trophic herpes virus segment has regions deleted so that the recombinant plasmid retains the cap- ability of producing infectious virions in the host.

5276062

H P L C A V I D I N M O N O M E R A F F I N I T Y R E S I N

Ferdinand C Haase assigned to Rohm and Haas Company

Novel, improved ligand-containing media, a method of preparation and use in the production of peptides, proteins, and the like, by chromatographic separation, and more specifically media having permanently attached via a covalent bond to an inert solid substrate an avidin polypeptide ligand in the dissociated renatured form which reversibly binds to certain molecules such as proteins, peptide, nucleotides, oligonucleotides, and the like and to other molecules which bind to avidin via biotinylation or by way of their secondary/tertiary micro- molecular structures.

5276159

D Y N E M I C I N A N A L O G S : S Y N T H E S E S , M E T H O D S O F

P R E P A R A T I O N A N D U S E

Adrian Smith, Chan-Ko Hwang, Sebastian V Wendeborn, Kyriacos Nicolaou, Erwin P Schreiner, Wilhelm Stahl, Wei-Min Dai, Peter E Maligres, Toshi Suzuki, Bishops Stortford, CA, United Kingdom assigned to The Scripps Research Institute

A fused ring system compound is disclosed that contains an epoxide group on one side of the fused rings and an enediyne macroeyclic ring on the other side of the fused rings. The compounds have DNA-cleaving, antimicrobial and tumor growth-inhibiting properties. Chimeric com- pounds having the fused ring system compound as an aglycone bonded to (i) a sugar moiety as the oligosaccharide portion or (ii) a monoclonal antibody or antibody combining site portion thereof that immunoreacts with target tumor cells are also disclosed. Compositions containing a compound or a chimer are disclosed, as are methods of preparing a compound.