DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of species 1 (the detection probe is capable of hybridizing to an RNA target molecule, see claim 4) and species 4 (the one strand of the stem loop is an ascending strand of the stem loop, see claim 7) in the reply filed on July 6, 2026 is acknowledged. Claims 1, 2, 4, and 7-9 will be examined.
Specification
The substituted specification filed on May 19, 2023 has been accepted and entered by the office.
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: (1) since case 16/631,937 has been patented, applicant is required to update this information in the first paragraph of the specification; (2) Figure 4B contains two nucleotide sequences having more than 10 nucleotides. However, Brief Description Of The Drawing related to Figure 4B only describes one nucleotide sequence (SEQ ID NO:8); and (3) Figure 10 contains 16 nucleotide sequences having more than 10 nucleotides. However, Brief Description Of The Drawing related to Figure 16 only describes three nucleotide sequences (SEQ ID NOs:18 to 20).
Appropriate correction is required.
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, 2, 4, and 7-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (1) as being anticipated by Bao et al., (US 2003/0129611 A1, published on July 10, 2003).
Regarding claims 1, 2, 4, and 7-9, Bao et al., teach a method for detecting a target nucleic acid sequence, comprising the steps: providing a nucleic acid sample from a subject (eg., target WT having SEQ ID No:19 in Table 3); detecting the target nucleic acid sequence using a detection probe (eg., shared-stem probe 19/stem7 having SEQ ID No:15 in Table 3), wherein the detection probe comprises a DNA fingerloop stem loop structure; wherein the DNA fingerloop stem loop structure comprises an antisense region that binds to the target nucleic acid sequence; wherein the antisense region is located in a loop and in one strand of the stem loop of the DNA fingerloop stem loop structure; wherein the DNA fingerloop stem loop structure diminishes base pairing to a mismatched target nucleic acid (eg., by enhancing specificity); and wherein the stem loop has a stem region of about 7 to about 20 base-pairs as recited in claim 1 wherein the DNA fingerloop stem loop structure provides increased detection specificity of the target nucleic acid sequence (ie., by enhancing specificity) as recited in claim 2, the detection probe is capable of hybridizing to an RNA target molecule as recited in claim 4, the one strand of the stem loop is an ascending strand of the stem loop (ie., a stem of a molecular beacon probe that moves outward from the 5’ end toward the loop) as recited in claim 7, the antisense region that binds to the target nucleic acid sequence comprises from about 10 to about 35 nucleotides (eg., 20 nucleotides, see SEQ ID No:15 in Table 3) as recited in claim 8, and the DNA fingerloop stem loop structure that binds to the target nucleic acid sequence comprises from about 25 to about 60 nucleotides (eg., 27 nucleotides, see SEQ ID No:19 in Table 3) as recited in claim 9 (see paragraphs [0016], [0017], [0026], [0027], [0034], [0050], [0057], [0059], [0170], [0185], and [0190], Table 3, and Figures 1, 2, 11, 12, and 19).
Therefore, Bao et al., teach all limitations recited in claims 1, 2, 4, and 7-9.
Conclusion
No claim is allowed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Frank Lu, Ph. D., whose telephone number is (571)272-0746. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM.
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/FRANK W LU/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1683
September 4, 2026
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