| United States Patent | 5,514,581 |
| Ferrari, et. al. | * May 7, 1996 |
| Inventors: | Ferrari; Franco A. (La Jolla, CA); Cappello; Joseph (San Diego, CA). |
| Assignee: | Protein Polymer Technologies, Inc. (San Diego, CA). |
| [*]Notice: | The portion of the term of this patent subsequent to Sept. 7, 2010 has been disclaimed. |
| Appl. No.: | 609,716 |
| Filed: | Nov. 6, 1990 |
| Continuation-in-part of Ser No. 269,429, Nov. 9, 1988, abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 114,618, Oct. 29, 1987, Pat. No. 5,243,038, which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 927,258, Nov. 4, 1986, abandoned. |
| Intl. Cl. : | C12N 1/21, C12N 15/70, C12N 15/12 |
| Current U.S. Cl.: | 435/252.3; 435/252.33; 435/320.1; 536/23.4 |
| Field of Search: | 530/330; 435/172.3, 69.1, 320.1, 252.3, 252.33; 576/27; 536/23.5, 23.4 |
| 4,614,517 | Sept., 1986 | Ruoslahti et al. | 530/330 |
| 5,243,038 | Sept., 1993 | Ferrari et al. | 536/23.1 |
Brack et al., Biopolymers, vol. 11, 1972, pp. 563-586.
Doel et al., Nuc. Acids Res., vol. 8, 1980, pp. 4574-4592.
Dixon, Bio/Technology, vol. 3, 1985, p. 67.
Primary Examiner: Fleisher; Mindy
Assistant Examiner: Ketter; James
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Rowland; Bertram I.
Novel polymers are provided which are produced by recombinant techniques.The polymers are characterized by having a small repeating sequence whichprovides for strands capable of associating, resulting in useful structuralcharacteristics, where the strands are joined by turns or loops which areflexible and available for interaction with the environment. Specifically,repeating groups of naturally occurring proteins such as silk are modifiedby introduction of an amino-acid sequence at a site which provides fora turn between strands to provide for readily available oligopeptides capableof interacting with molecules in the environment.
