Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group II and species in the reply filed on December 3, 2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 1,4,6,8,15-22,27,29-34 are pending. Claims 2-3,5,7,9-14,23-26,28,35-36 are canceled. Claims 1, 19-22,27,29-34 are withdrawn. Claims 4,6,8,15-18 are examined.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 4,6,8,15-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sago (J Am Chem Soc, 2018) in view of Broad (US 2019/0085324).
Sago disclose composition comprising many different nanoparticles LNP types encapsulating with mRNA and barcoded DNA (page 3-4). Sago disclose different amounts of PEG mole percent and varying structure of PEG (page 5). Sago disclose universal forward and reverse primer regions on all barcodes for equal amplification which meets the limitations of a PCR handle (page 4). Sago does not disclose bar coded b-mRNA. Sago does not disclose 3’ UTR.
Broad disclose barcoded b-mRNA capture microbead (para 300). Broad disclose RNA accessible for capturing by hybridization onto RNA and reverse transcription on mRNA captured on the barcoded beads (para 356). Broad disclose the 3’-UTR by preserving the 3’end of the transcript which results in the cell barcode and UMI of a given captured molecule region preserved (para 1018). Broad disclose a reporter molecule fluorescence reporter (para 886).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filing to incorporate the teaching and disclosure of Broad b-mRNA for the barcoded DNA of Sago. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to combine teachings because Broad provides the similar nucleic acid of RNA in the lipid nanoparticle formulation.
No claims are allowed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL D PAK whose telephone number is (571)272-0879. The examiner can normally be reached on flexible time.
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/MICHAEL D PAK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1674