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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This Non-Final Office Action is responsive to the communication received 03/20/2026.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse in the Reply filed on 03/20/2026 of Group I, Claim(s) 1-14 is acknowledged.
Applicant has elected without traverse in the Reply filed on 03/20/2026 the following species:
A. the 5′-end of the B strand and the 5′-end of the T strand are each modified with a phosphate group (claim 11)
The Restriction/Election Requirements are deemed proper and are made FINAL.
Claims 1-19 are pending.
Claims 15-19 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the Reply filed on 03/20/2026.
Claims 1-14 are under examination in this Office Action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Jiang et al. (05/24/2018) PCT International Patent Application Publication WO 2018/090373 A1 cited in the 4/9/2024 IDS (hereinafter referred to as "Jiang").
With regards to claims 1-14, Jiang teaches:
a) as in claims 1-14, a PCR-free high-throughput sequencing method, comprising the following steps: (A1) obtaining a DNA fragment of target size by performing fragmentation on a nucleic acid sample based on a size of the nucleic acid sample, and performing end repair and an A-tailing reaction; (A2) ligating an adapter to the product of step (A1); (A3) obtaining DNA nanoballs by performing single-strand cyclization on the product of step (A2) and rolling circle replication; and (A4) loading and sequencing; the fragmentation is performed by digesting the nucleic acid sample with fragmentmase; wherein step (A1) is performed in two sub-steps: (A1-1) performing fragmentation on the nucleic acid sample based on the size of the nucleic acid sample to obtain a DNA fragment of target size; and (A1-2) performing the end repair and the A-tailing reaction on the DNA fragment of target size obtained in sub-step (A1-1); wherein the adapter each comprises two barcodes; wherein: the adapter is formed by annealing two partially complementary single-stranded nucleic acids; and the two barcodes are located in a non-complementary region of the two single-stranded nucleic acids; wherein in step (A1), the nucleic acid sample is DNA or RNA; wherein the DNA is genomic DNA; wherein, when the nucleic acid sample is RNA, the RNA is subjected to reverse transcription to obtain DNA; and the fragmentation is performed on the RNA or the DNA obtained by the reverse transcription of the RNA; wherein in step (A1), the fragmentation, the end repair, and the A-tailing reaction are performed in one step by mixing and reacting a fragmentation-end repair-A-tailing reaction solution with the nucleic acid sample, to obtain the product of step (A1); and the fragmentation-end repair-A-tailing reaction solution contains fragmentmase, a fragmentmase reaction buffer, adenylate deoxyribonucleic acids, a mixed deoxyribonucleic acid solution, T4 DNA polymerases, Taq DNA polymerases, and a TE buffer; wherein: in step (A2), the adapter is formed by annealing a B strand and a T strand; wherein: a 5′-end of the B strand and the 5′-end of the T strand are each modified with a phosphate group; wherein: in step (A2), the adapter is ligated to the product of step (A1) by mixing and reacting the adapter and the product of step (A1) with a ligation reaction solution, to obtain the product of step (A2); and the ligation reaction solution contains a T4 polynucleotide kinase buffer, adenylate ribonucleic acids, PEG8000, T4 DNA ligases, and enzyme-free water; wherein: in step (A2), the adapter, the product of step (A2), and the ligation reaction solution are mixed by mixing an adapter solution containing the adapter and the product of step (A2) with the ligation reaction solution in a volume ratio of (1 to 5):50:(25 to 29); and a concentration of the adapter in the adapter solution is 6 μM; wherein: in step (A2), the adapter, the product of step (A1) and the ligation reaction solution, after being mixed, react at 25° C for 10 min to 30 min and are kept at 4° C (see [0018] to [0075] and [0127] to [0399]).
Thus, Jiang anticipates the present claims.
Conclusion
No claim is allowed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to Christian Boesen whose telephone number is 571-270-1321. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
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/CHRISTIAN C BOESEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1684
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