Re: [ccp4bb]: What has been will be again, what has been done willbe done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

[<rams@poori.biochem.uiowa.edu>]

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Sometimes these things can get messy.  One of the things that is beginning 
to get patented is several well known concepts from the old worlds 
(India/China) etc.  Recently, the Indian Government had to go to court to 
get a patent on rice by a US company squashed (after spending tons of 
money).  

While, it might be a joke in Australia, here in the US - the story can be 
very different.  In essense if the patent gets awareded, then we will have 
to pay everytime we do anything that is mentioned below....

Rams.


On Wed, 19 Mar 2003, Dunten, Pete {IVDU~Palo Alto} wrote:

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> 
> 
> An interesting patent application has recently been published (US20030049678 A1).  The beginning of the claims section is below, another fine example of Abbott innovation.
> 
> We claim: 
> 1. A process for identifying a ligand to a target biomolecule comprising, a) obtaining a target biomolecule crystal; b) exposing the target biomolecule crystal to one or more test samples; and c) obtaining an X-ray crystal diffraction pattern to determine whether a ligand/receptor complex is formed. 
> 2. The process according to claim 1 further comprising the steps of obtaining an X-ray crystal diffraction pattern of the target biomolecule crystal prior to exposure to the test samples and comparing the X-ray diffraction pattern of the target molecule before and after the exposure. 
> 3. The process according to claim 1 further comprising the step of transforming diffraction pattern into an electron density map. 
> 4. The process according to claim 3 further comprising the step of converting electron density map into a structure. 
> 5. The process according to claim 1, wherein the target biomolecule is exposed to a test sample by soaking the target biomolecule crystal in a solution that contains the test sample. 
> 
> 

-- 
S. Ramaswamy
Department of Biochemistry.
University of Iowa.