NIH Granted Gene Therapy Patent

WASHINGTON--The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded abroad patent on gene therapy to the National Institutes of Health.Six years after filing the application, NIH and its licensee,Genetic Therapy, Inc. of Gaithersburg, Maryland, can now use thepatent for ex vivo human gene therapy.

In this technique, human cells are manipulated in the laboratoryto express potentially therapeutic genes, which are then introducedinto a patient to treat disease. Coinventors of the techniqueare Michael Blaese, MD, and Stephen A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, bothNIH scientists, and W. French Anderson, MD, a former NIH researchernow at the University of Southern California Norris Cancer Center.