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news.iBio, a leader in plant-based biotechnology for developing and manufacturing biological products, received notices of intention to grant for two European patent applications claiming novel protein expression technologies.
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The first newly allowed patent application (serial No: 05723389.2) entitled "Systems and Methods for Clonal Expression in Plants," includes claims to a system for generating transgenic hairy root cells containing a viral vector expressing a gene of interest.
The system is used to generate a clonal root line, clonal root cell line, clonal plant cell line, or clonal plant having a self-replicating, episomal, extrachromosomal viral RNA vector that carries a polynucleotide of interest.
"The protein expression technologies covered by this patent have particular utility for companies interested in producing proteins in plant cell culture," said Wayne P. Fitzmaurice, Ph.D., iBio’s vice president of intellectual property.
"Current strategies for expression of proteins in plants typically use whole plants grown in controlled environmental chambers or plant cell culture in a bioreactor. iBio has multiple proprietary systems enabling us and our clients to select the most efficient technology for a specific biopharmaceutical depending on its characteristics and commercial applications."
The second allowed patent application (serial No: 10150887.7) entitled "System for Expression of Genes in Plants," includes claims to methods for expressing one or more polynucleotides of interest using a set of plant viral vectors that function together.
The polynucleotides of interest can include, for example, those encoding therapeutic proteins, one or more antibody chains, nutritionally relevant proteins, and polynucleotides that provide a template for transcription of an active RNA species.
"These allowances are important additions to our broad patent coverage of innovative technologies for development and production of biopharmaceuticals," stated Robert Erwin, iBio’s president.
"Our iBioLaunch platform technology is well suited for vaccines, antibodies and other therapeutic proteins. We expect increasing commercial interest in its numerous applications, in particular, our proprietary fibrosis product, and prevention and treatment of infectious disease outbreaks."
Both allowed patent applications are based on inventions developed by scientists at the company’s research and technology collaborator, the Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology and are owned by iBio. The first patent, when granted, will join the company’s previously issued US patent serial No. 8,148,608 for the clonal root expression technology. The second patent, when granted, will join US patents 7,491,509, 8,058,511, and 8,597,942 for the plant viral vector expression technology.