On July 18th, in appeal no. 2017-007443, the PTAB reversed the Examiner’s rejection to an improved method of manipulating the huge amount of DNA sequence information or “text strings” that are provided by applying the techniques of massively parallel sequencing (MPS) to a sample containing “one or more nucleotide sequences” that are first amplified by PCR. A first plurality of “text strings” – DNA sequences – is selected, wherein “each of the selected plurality of text strings represent[s] a nucleotide sequence that corresponds to a first target locus in the [PCR] amplified sample. In terms of data manipulation, the claim has three more steps: a “comparing” step (or a determination of an “abundance count”), an “identifying step” to detect “noise responses” and a “determining step” to yield a “method detection limit from the abundance count.”
In a review article about next generation DNA sequencing, M.W. Anderson et al, Genes, 1, 38-69 (2010), various MPS methodologies are described: “First, the DNA sequencing libraries are clonally amplified in vitro…. Second, the DNA is sequenced by synthesis, such that the DNA sequence is determined by the addition of nucleotides to the complementary strand rather though through [Sanger] chain termination chemistry. Finally, the spatially segregated amplified DNA templates are sequenced simultaneously in a massively parallel fashion, without the requirement for a physical separation step.” This sequencing step apparently yield the text strings of claims 1 and 12. Continue reading
