Protein-induced morphogenesis of kidney tissue

Patent Number: 7,196,056

Date of First Priority Issue: Monday March 10th, 2003

Date Issued: Tuesday March 27th, 2007

Assignee: Curis, Inc. (Cambridge, MA)

Inventors: Cohen; Charles M. (Weston, MA), Sampath; Kuber T. (Hollison, MA), Pang; Roy H. L. (Etna, NH), Oppermann; Hermann (Medway, MA), Rueger; David C. (Hopkington, MA)

From Class: Differentiation

Comments: No comments

This patent has three main areas covered in its claims:

1. Induction of new kidney tissue growth.

2. Induction of kidney morphogenesis.

3. Repair of kidney tissue.

These are performed by administration of appropriate concentrations of the following proteins: OP-1, OP-2, BMP-2, BMP-4, BMP-5, BMP-6, Vg1, Vgr-1, DPP, 60A, or GDF-1.

This patent may be very important since numerous papers are currently being published using agents such as those described above for induction of tissue regeneration. For example, OP-1 is already in clinical use for non-healing spinal fusions.