Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Sean Johnston
  • Patent number: 6204240
    Abstract: The invention relates to methods of treating injuries to or diseases of the central nervous system which methods involve increasing the active concentration(s) of transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-&bgr;1) and/or analogues thereof in the central nervous system of the patient. The present invention also provides pharmaceutical compositions comprising TGF-&bgr;1 and/or analogues thereof for administration to a patient prior to, simultaneous with, or following a neural insult, which compositions are useful in minimizing damage to the central nervous system that would otherwise occur following the insult.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 1994
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2001
    Assignee: Genentech, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter Gluckman, Karoly Nikolics, Christopher Williams
  • Patent number: 6100071
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to novel chimeric VEGF receptor proteins comprising amino acid sequences derived from the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors flt-1 and KDR, including the murine homologue to the human KDR receptor FLK-1, wherein said chimeric VEGF receptor proteins bind to VEGF and antagonize the endothelial cell proliferative and angiogenic activity thereof. The present invention is also directed to nucleic acids and expression vectors encoding these chimeric VEGF receptor proteins, host cells harboring such expression vectors, pharmaceutically acceptable compositions comprising such proteins, methods of preparing such proteins and to methods utilizing such proteins for the treatment of conditions associated with undesired vascularization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 1996
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2000
    Assignee: Genentech, Inc.
    Inventors: Terri Lynn Davis-Smyth, Helen Hsifei Chen, Leonard Presta, Napoleone Ferrara
  • Patent number: 6020473
    Abstract: The present invention involves the preparation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) variants which provide materials that are selective in respect to binding characteristics to the kinase domain region and the FMS-like tyrosine-kinase region, respectively KDR and FLT-1. The respective KDR and FLT-1 receptors are bound by corresponding domains within the VEGF compound domains. The variants hereof define those two binding regions and modify them so as to introduce changes that interrupt the binding to the respective domain. In this fashion the final biological characteristics of the VEGF molecule are selectively modified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 1995
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2000
    Assignee: Genentech, Inc.
    Inventors: Bruce A. Keyt, Francis Hung Nguyen, Napoleone Ferrara
  • Patent number: 5952199
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to novel VEGF receptor proteins comprising amino acid sequences derived from the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors flt-1, FLT4, and KDR, including the murine homologue to the human KDR receptor FLK-1, wherein said chimeric VEGF receptor proteins bind to VEGF and antagonize the endothelial cell proliferative and angiogenic activity thereof. The present invention is also directed to nucleic acids and expression vectors encoding these chimeric VEGF receptor proteins, host cells harboring such expression vectors, pharmaceutically acceptable compositions comprising such proteins, methods of preparing such proteins and to methods utilizing such proteins for the treatment of conditions associated with undesired vascularization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 1997
    Date of Patent: September 14, 1999
    Assignee: Genentech, Inc.
    Inventors: Terri Lynn Davis-Smyth, Helen Hsifei Chen, Leonard Presta, Napoleone Ferrara