[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 14, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Page 14909]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-6271]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

National Institutes of Health


Government-Owned Inventions; Availability for Licensing

AGENCY: National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, DHHS

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The invention listed below is owned by an agency of the U.S. 
Government and is available for licensing in the U.S. in accordance 
with 35 U.S.C. 207 to achieve expeditious commercialization of results 
of federally funded research and development.

ADDRESSES: Licensing information and a copy of the U.S. patent 
application referenced below may be obtained by contacting Richard U. 
Rodriguez, M.B.A., at the Office of Technology Transfer, National 
Institutes of Health, 6011 Executive Boulevard, Suite 325, Rockville, 
Maryland 20852-3804 (telephone 301/496-7056 ext 287; fax 301/402-0220; 
e-mail [email protected]). A signed Confidential Disclosure Agreement 
is required to receive a copy of any patent application.
    Entitled: ``GHEP, A Gene Highly Expressed in Normal and Neoplastic 
Prostate, and Uses Therefor.''
    Inventors: Drs. Ira H. Pastan (NCI), Par Olsson (NCI), Tapan K. 
Bera (NCI), Magnus Essand (NCI), and Byungkook Lee (NCI).
    DHHS Ref. No. E-144-00/0 Filed: October 10, 2000.
    Two types of immunotherapy are currently being intensively pursued 
for the treatment of cancer. One is the development of antibodies that 
recognize cell surface antigens. These antibodies can be useful by 
themselves or can be armed with radioisotopes, drugs or toxins to kill 
cancer cells. The second approach is to develop vaccines that target 
intracellular proteins presented as peptides on the cell surface bound 
to the major histocompatability complex. For these therapies to be 
effective it is important that the antigen is present on tumor cells 
and is not expressed in substantial amounts on essential normal cells 
such as liver, heart, brain or kidney. Recent work has focused on the 
identification of new differentiation antigens that are present in 
normal prostate and continue to be expressed in prostate cancer.
    The claimed invention provides a Gene Highly Expressed in Prostate 
(``GHEP''). The gene is found in normal and neoplastic prostate, and 
encodes two short proteins, one 34 amino acids (``ghep34'') in length 
and one 35 amino acids in length (``ghep35''). Detection of the 
transcript or of the proteins in tissues other than the prostate is 
indicative of prostate cancer. The nucleic acids, proteins, and 
immunogenic fragments thereof can be used to raise an immune response, 
for example, via a vaccine, to prostate cancer. This approach could 
involve active in vivo treatments as well as passive ex vivo approaches 
to slow or inhibit the growth of GHEP-expressing cancers.
    The invention further provides methods of detecting the proteins or 
the gene transcript in a biological sample. If the biological sample is 
from a tissue other than the prostate, detection of either of the 
protein or of the gene transcript is indicative of the presence of 
prostate cancer in the subject from whom the sample was taken. The 
invention further provides antibodies that specifically recognize 
ghep34 and antibodies that specifically recognize ghep35, as well as 
kits for the detection of one or both of the proteins in a sample.
    The above mentioned invention is available for licensing on an 
exclusive or non-exclusive basis.

    Dated: March 6, 2001.
Jack Spiegel,
Director, Division of Technology Development & Transfer, Office of 
Technology Transfer.
[FR Doc. 01-6271 Filed 3-13-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-P