The US Patent and Trademark office has awarded AxCell Biosciences US patent 6,309,820 entitled Polypeptides Having a Functional Domain of Interest and Methods of Identifying and Using Same. The patent, with 9 claims, covers the companys method for identifying SH3 domain-containing proteins from human cDNA expression libraries, and is the first patent awarded for AxCells Cloning of Ligand Targets proteomics technology. In previous studies, researchers have associated proteins containing SH3 domains with cancer, diabetes, and diseases of the central nervous system. This technology permits the use of ligands small peptide sequences that bind to larger domain units within proteins to discover new domains and ultimately new proteins that may be useful as drug targets, said AxCell CEO John Rodwell in a statement. AxCell is currently building its ProChart database of protein-protein interactions involved in cell signaling.