Compositions and methods for wound healing

Patent Number: 7,473,414

Many interesting angles can be used to get patents.  This patent covers the use of a mouse model for identifying factors associated with healing of wounds.  These kind of patents make one wonder where exactly the limit of patentability is, and what is the purpose of actually filing the patent. 

The patent covers essentially what is described in the first independent claim: "A method of identifying a factor involved in enhanced wound healing, comprising the steps of: contacting a mouse model of wound healing with a composition selected from the group consisting of: serum, a fraction of serum, and an extract of at least one healer mouse tissue, wherein the mouse model is a healer mouse, wherein a hole punched in an ear of a healer mouse will close at least 70% within 60 days; and assaying a biological property associated with wound healing in the mouse model, wherein a composition which enhances the biological property is identified as comprising a factor involved in enhanced wound healing." 

So from our interpretation, the inventors have identified a biological phenomena, a mouse strain that heals at an accelerated rate.  They do not know why it heals at an accelerated rate, so they patent the use of the mouse that they discovered as a basis for examining the reason why it heals at an accelerated rate.  

View this patent on the USPTO website.