A $30 million patent claim filed by St. John’s University against a retired pharmacology professor and a former graduate student will go forward following a Brooklyn federal judge’s denial of the defendants’ motion to dismiss.

Among other findings, Eastern District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis held that the action was not barred by the statute of limitations and that the defendants, department chairman Sanford Bolton and his advisee Spiridon Spireas, owed fiduciary duties to the school.