Scenario Scientists from New Zealand have resolved a long-standing problem in regenerative
medicine. Professor Li Ren-Choy from the National Institute of Medical Research and her
team developed a new method to reprogram human cells to better mimic embryonic stem
cells, with significant implicati...
, Scenario Scientists from New Zealand have resolved a long-standing problem in regenerative
medicine. Professor Li Ren-Choy from the National Institute of Medical Research and her
team developed a new method to reprogram human cells to better mimic embryonic stem
cells, with significant implications for biomedical and therapeutic uses. Her assistant, Dr Liev
Green, writes an article about the new method on his blog, called ‘Green Cells’. Since 2001,
non-reproductive adult cells of the body, called somatic cells, can be artificially
reprogrammed into a state that resembles embryonic stem cells which have the capacity to
then generate any cell of the body. These cells are called induced pluripotent stem cells. The
problem that Professor Ren’s team solved relates to induced pluripotent stem cells’ tendency
to retain an epigenetic memory of their original somatic state, as well as other epigenetic
abnormalities. By way of solution, the team developed a new method, called TENT
reprogramming, that mimics the reset of a cell’s epigenome (which ordinarily happens during
very early embryonic development). Professor Li Ren-Choy applies for a patent in New
Zealand on 29 September 2022 and also submits a subsequent PCT application on 31 August
2023, where South Africa is also specified. Question The national part of the PCT application
lands on your desk where you work as a patent attorney, and you have to indicate whether
the innovation will meet the South African patent requirements. Consider the invention
threshold question as well as the three substantive patent requirements. Think of extra
questions that you may need to ask Prof Ren-Choy in order to make a preliminary
determination on the patentability of the innovation.
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