PATENT ABSTRACTS

5210412

M E T H O D F O R A N A L Y Z I N G A N O R G A N I C S A M P L E

Robert J Levis, Louis J Romano assigned to Wayne State University

Described is a method and apparatus for analy- zing an organic sample. In the preferred embodi- ment, this method and apparatus allows the determination of the base sequence of a nucleic acid by determining the molecular weights of the components of a biological sample. The method uses either a pre-existing chromophore or the covalent attachment of an ionizablc chromophore to a biological sample followed by the vaporization of these molecules by exposure to an intense pulse of electromagnetic radiation in the presence of a matrix which strongly abs- orbs the radiation. The gaseous molecules are subsequently extracted into an evacuated ioniza- tion chamber and then exposed to elec- tromagnetic radiation at a wavelength which specifically excites the chromophore covalently attached to the biological sample. The molecular weights of these ionized species are then deter- mined by mass spectroscopic analysis. This method of molecular weight determination allows for a DNA sequencing method. Four samples of DNA molecules are prepared such that each is covalently linked to an ionizable chromophore and each is fragmented by a means which results in fragments within each of the four samples that terminate at a different one of the nucleotides A, C, G or T. Each of these four fragmented samples is subsequently introduced into the said apparatus in order to determine their molecular weights hence providing the strand length of the fragments. The data gene- rated may be analyzed by high-speed computer, the four data sets correlated, and the sequence deduced.

5211657

L A M I N I N A C H A I N D E D U C E D A M I N O A C I D S E Q U E N C E ,

E X P R E S S I O N V E C T O R S A N D A C T I V E S Y N T H E T I C P E P T I D E S

Yoshihiko Yamada, Makoto Sasaki, Hynda K Kleinman, George R Martin assigned to The United States Government as represented by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services

The present invention relates to peptides and

143

derivatives thereof having laminin-like activity. The invention further relates to pharmaceutical compositions containing these peptides, to anti- bodies effective against these peptides, and to vectors containing a DNA sequence of eDNA coding for the A chain of laminin. The peptides of the invention may be used to treat diseases such as cancer.

5211946

B A C I L L U S T H U R I N G I E N S I S I S O L A T E S F O R C O N T R O L L I N G

A C A R I D E S

Jewel M Payne, Raymond J C Cannon, Angela L Bagley assigned to Mycogen Corporation

Disclosed and claimed are Bacillus thuringiensis isolates designated B.t. PS45B1, B.t. PS24J, B.t. PS94R3 B.t. PS17, B.t. PS62B1 and B.t. PS74G! which are active against acarid pests. Thus, these isolates, or mutants thereof, can be used to con- trol such pests. Further, genes encoding novel delta-endotoxins can be removed from these isolates and transferred to other host microbes, or plants. Expression of the delta-endotoxins in microbe hosts results in the control of acarid pests, whereas transformed plants become resistant to acarid pests.

5212058

N U C L E I C A C I D E N C O D I N G U B I Q U I T I N - S P E C I F I C

P R O T E A S E S

Rohan Baker, John Tobias, Alexande Var- shavsky, Garran, MA, Australia assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The disclosure relates to a generic class of ubiquitin-specific proteases which specifically cleave at the C-terminus of the ubiquitin moiety in a ubiquitin fusion protein irrespective of the size of the ubiquitin fusion protein. More specifically, the disclosure relates to ubiquitin- specific proteases of this class which have been isolated from a cell. The disclosure also relates to isolated DNA sequences encoding the proteases of this class.