By Ben Butkus
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Biosearch Technologies said today that it has acquired worldwide rights from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to patents covering "non-FRET" nucleic acid probe technology.
Novato, Calif.-based Biosearch said that the technology will enable it to design and market new fluorescent quenched probes for quantitative PCR and highly multiplexed fluorescent probe applications. The intellectual property may also confer to Biosearch a broad patent position around many currently commercially available molecular probes, company officials said.
Biosearch has specifically acquired the rights to US Patent No. 6,150,097, entitled "Nucleic acid detection probes having non-FRET fluorescence quenching and kits and assays including such probes," from PHRI Properties, a wholly-owned nonprofit subsidiary of UMDNJ.
In addition, Biosearch has acquired the rights to counterpart patents in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Japan.
Biosearch has a "semi-exclusive license" to the '097 patent and its counterparts, as both Abbott and Gen-Probe have previously licensed the technology without sublicensing rights, according to Marc Beal, director of corporate development at Biosearch, and UMDNJ researcher Fred Kramer. The non-FRET probes have found "widespread use in multiplex molecular diagnostic assays," Kramer added in a statement.
Biosearch also has acquired exclusive rights from UMDNJ to sublicense the non-FRET probe patents to companies wishing to commercialize products based on the technology.
For more detail on the licensed technology see GenomeWeb Daily News sister publication PCR Insider.