Encapsulife Receives U.S. Patent Office Notice of Allowance For Living-Cell Bio-artificial Pancreas Requiring No Immune-Suppression -- Constitutes Dramatic Milestone Toward Curing Diabetes

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Washington, DC, 2.18.14 -- Encapsulife, Inc., a global leader in research and development to cure diabetes by employing NASA-derivative technologies, today announced the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a Notice of Allowance for Encapsulife's claims in U.S. Patent Application No. 12/989,490.

The Notice of Allowance covers a range of inventions by Dr. Taylor Wang, Encapsulife's Founder, that employ immunoisolation patch technologies "...for use in cellular transplantation therapy of a disorder, comprising...a plurality of multi-membrane microcapsules and a biocompatible support matrix in which the plurality of multi-membrane  microcapsules are distributed."

"We are quite pleased with USPTO's decision to allow these new composition of matter, method, and use claims," said Dr. Taylor Wang, "particularly the claims that relate to our multi-membrane capsule design."

Geoffrey Mason, patent expert and CEO of FastPatentPartner further commented, "It is unusual for the Patent and Trademark Office to allow a claim with an efficacy statement such as the one in the Encapsulife's Letter of Acceptance. It shows the PTO believes the invention will work."

"Patch" is a short-hand reference to a "living-cell bio-artificial pancreas," that survives and functions as transplanted tissues inside a foreign host, without being rejected and without requiring harmful immune-suppression drugs. The patch has proven successful as a simple sub-cutaneous implant. The Notice of Allowance broadly applies to all "disorders," and more narrowly includes claims to specific applications to "endocrine disorders, neurological disorders and diabetes," wherein the encapsulated cellular material is "pancreatic beta cells, pancreatic islets, or other insulin-producing islets, or a combination thereof." These very positive developments are the result of decades of determined research and development progress by Dr. Wang, beginning with his scientific discoveries made during 1985 Shuttle Mission / Spacelab 3, and follow-on technical achievements that include full reversal of diabetes in canines.*

There are no known comparable technical achievements of this arena.

The patent application was fully funded by Encapsulife. The successful patent will join other patents by Dr. Taylor Wang, as part of Encapsulife's patent portfolio. As part of Encapsulife's  patent protection strategy, Patent #12/989,490 is assigned to Vanderbilt University, where Encapsulife has exclusive technology development agreements.

Tom Gibson, President of Encapsulife said, "Having filed for this patent five years ago, it is a pleasant coincidence that the PTO's Notice of Allowance was received in the same development cycle wherein Dr. Taylor Wang reported successes using the patch technology to reverse diabetes in primate trails done in collaboration with Dr. James Markmann, Chief of Transplantation Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. We must now move urgently to get this technology  into human trials and to the victims of diabetes. Our development efforts will now go into high gear."

About Encapsulife [ www.encapsulife.org ]

Encapsulife, Inc. founded in 1998, is a small, closely-held, private Delaware corporation with a substantial patent portfolio, unique and peer-reviewed research, passionate and talented leadership, and products and processes focused on encapsulating and transplanting living islet cells to automatically reverse diabetes without use of immunosuppression drugs or external mechanical devices.

Media Contact: Tom Gibson, President, Encapsulife, 202.338.5314, [email protected]

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SOURCE Encapsulife, Inc.