Ocata Therapeutics Inc fka OCAT

[rocky301]

Patent issued today has a few of you asking exactly what it is and how it differs from others. The info below,imo, best describes those differences. The Background info is what MOST currently do now to create hESC's. The Summary is what ACT's new patent methods entail.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
With few exceptions, embryonic stem cells have only been grown from blastocyst-stage embryos. ES cell lines are conventionally isolated from the inner cell mass of blastocysts. There are several drawbacks to the techniques used to create these cells. From the perspective of the technique, the culturing of embryos to blastocysts occasionally has a relatively low success rate. Additionally, certain members of the public object to embryonic stem (ES) cell research using cell lines derived from the inner cell mass of blastocysts because this derivation procedure destroys the preimplantation, blastocyst-stage embryo. As such, the blastocyst-stage embryo from which ES cells are conventionally produced cannot be cryopreserved, frozen for later use, or permitted to develop further.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides novel methods for deriving embryonic stem cells and embryo-derived cells from an embryo, those cells and cell lines, and uses of the embryonic stem cells and cell lines for therapeutic and research purposes. It also relates to a method of establishing and storing an autologous stem cell line from a blastomere retrieved prior to implantation of an embryo, e.g. in conjunction with assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization ("IVF").
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,893,315.PN.&OS=PN/7,893,315&RS=PN/7,893,315