DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 are pending. Claims 1-12 and 19-20 have been withdrawn as drawn to non-elected inventions. Claims 13-18 have been examined.
Election/Restriction
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group II, claims 13-18, in the reply filed on 11/17/2025 is acknowledged.
Priority
This application, Serial No. 18/108,171 (PGPub: US2023/0258636) was filed 02/10/2023. This application claims benefit of provisional application 63/309,225 filed 02/11/2022.
Information Disclosure Statements
The Information Disclosure Statement filed 02/17/2023 has been considered by the Examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 18 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 18 should be corrected to recite “…wherein the one or more synthetic particles are modified according…”
Appropriate correction is required.
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) 13-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Han et al. (US 2020/0391169, Pub Date: 12/17/2020).
Regarding claim 13, Han teaches throughout the publication a system (see Figure 2A), comprising:
one or more input streams that receive input material to be provided to a droplet generator, the input material selected based on a set of synthetic particle characteristics comprising a synthetic particle density and one or more other physical properties (Figure 2A, component at 220; paragraphs 0105-0110, characteristics to consider include particle density, particle diameter, hydrogel volume, polymer/hydrogel material); and
an output stream that receives one or more synthetic particles created by the droplet generator, the one or more synthetic particles having the set of synthetic particle characteristics (Figure 2A, component at 210; paragraphs 0105-0110,
wherein a surface characteristic of the one or more synthetic particles are modified to cause the one or more synthetic particles to bind to one or more target particles in a solution (paragraph 0113, following hydrogel particle synthesis, beads are conjugated to a specific antibody that targets a desired protein biomarker).
While Han does not explicitly recite that the synthetic particles are modified in a reservoir that stores the one or more synthetic particles, the reference teaches an in depth functionalization process that includes washing, mixing, suspending and centrifuging the beads to enable covalent coupling (see paragraph 0155). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed that the functionalization process of Han was conducted within a reservoir that stores the particles as the steps taught by Han are well-known in the art to be conducted within a tube or vial, which reads on the broadly claimed reservoir.
Regarding claim 14, Han teaches the system wherein the one or more other physical properties include a size of the one or more synthetic particles (paragraph 0108).
Regarding claim 15, Han teaches the system wherein the input material comprises a polymer selected to modulate a particle density of the one or more synthetic particles (paragraphs 0011 and 0029, polymer to modulate particle density).
Regarding claim 16, Han teaches the system wherein the one or more synthetic particles comprise a hydrogel (paragraphs 0011-0013).
Regarding claim 17, Han teaches the system wherein the input material comprises an additive including a metal oxide (paragraph 0124, iron oxide nanoparticles added to the aqueous phase with the monomers and crosslinkers).
Regarding claim 18, Han teaches the system wherein the one or more synthetic particles modified according to a surface treatment including applying antibodies to the one or more synthetic particles (paragraphs 0041 and 0113 and for example, paragraph 0155, antibody functionalization).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Chung et al., (ACS Appl. Bio Mater. 2021, 4, pages 6186-6194) teaches a droplet based microfluidic synthesis method for fabrication of hydrogel microparticles (abstract).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to REBECCA M GIERE whose telephone number is (571)272-5084. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-4:30.
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/REBECCA M GIERE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1677