16 DECEMBER 2006 PCT PORTRAITS More than 1.2 million international patent applications covering new technology of every description have been filed since the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) began operating in 1978. Continuing our series of snapshots, WIPO Magazine dips into the database of PCT applications and seeks out the people behind the patents. In this edition we find three very different inventions with medical applications

Nobel Prize for the Silence of the Genes

The discovery by Craig tasks, such as instructing a gene to gans. They found they could Mello (left) and Andrew produce a protein. It is by making block the effect of a specific gene Fire was “like opening the blinds in the proteins that an individual gene by injecting worms with a double-

Photo: Robert Carlin/ morning,” said a Nobel produces its effect. By silencing this stranded RNA. A friend and col- committee member. effect, it is possible to identify the league of Andrew Fire’s, geneti- function of specific genes. cist David Schwartz, recalls the At 4:40 am on October hours of unglamorous labor that 2, 2006, Craig Mello In the few years since they pub- went into the research: “I’d be Copyright University of Massachusetts Medical School in Massachusetts was lished their findings, RNA interfer- working in the middle of the night going back to bed after checking ence has become an essential re- and Andy would be hunched over his diabetic daughter’s blood sug- search tool with multiple his microscope next door, feed- ar level when the phone rang. At a applications. In his interview for ing his worms. He had to push similar hour in California, Andrew Nobelprize.org, Dr. Fire cited a food their way with a tiny brush.” Fire was woken by what he as- study in Holland, “where they sumed was a wrong number call. used RNA interference to charac- Both scientists stress that they pro- The phone calls – from Sweden – terize a given tumor type. Once vided just one key piece of a jigsaw informed the two scientists that they figured it out they said, ‘You to which numerous researcher had they had been jointly awarded the could treat this with aspirin!’” contributed throughout the world. 2006 Nobel Prize for Medicine. Biomedics are also now using “Science is a group effort,” Andrew RNA interference to try to switch Fire told reporters. In 1998 Dr. Craig Mello and off disease-causing genes, with Dr. Andrew Fire discovered a fun- the aim of developing a new class Andrew Fire, Craig Mello and their damental mechanism for control- of pharmaceuticals with the po- research colleagues filed PCT ap- ling the flow of genetic information tential to treat diseases from dia- plications in 1998 and 2000 for in living cells, solving a puzzle that betes and flu to AIDS and cancer. “genetic inhibition by double had baffled scientists in different stranded RNA” and for “RNA inter- disciplines for years. They found a Andrew Fire, who was working at ference pathway genes as tools for way to silence – or switch off – spe- the time for the Washington- genetic interference.” cific genes by disabling the gene’s based Carnegie Institution, and “messenger” RNA molecules. RNA Craig Mello, at the University of (ribonucleic acid) is similar to DNA, Massachusetts Medical School, but more active and performs did their groundbreaking experi- More information: many of the cell’s more difficult ment in a tiny worm, the C. ele- http://nobelprize.org/.

Metal Magician Meets Engineering Wizard

A hypodermic needle so fine that it makes injections The usual method of manufacturing needles is to pain-free. This was the challenge proposed by the hollow out a tiny cylinder of metal. But the thinner Tokyo-based medical equipment manufacturer, the cylinder, the more difficult this procedure be- Terumo Corporation, with the goal of alleviating the comes. Terumo Corporation’s quest for an ultra-thin daily discomfort of insulin injections for diabetic chil- needle had been turned down as impracticable by a dren. It was met by bringing together Terumo’s engi- string of large metalwork firms, before they turned neer, Tetsuya Oyauchi, who has a string of patents to to Mr. Okano, whose skilled craftsmanship, Web his name for medical syringes, and Masayuki Okano, Japan reports, had earned him a reputation as a the 73-year old head of a small metal pressing factory. metalwork magician.