US Patent Issued to Athena Diagnostics on Dec. 16 for "Methods to detect a silent carrier genotype" (Massachusetts Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,497,658, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to Athena Diagnostics Inc..

"Methods to detect a silent carrier genotype" was invented by David A. Hill (Worcester, Mass.), Matthew Evans (Shrewsbury, Mass.) and Corey D. Braastad (Southampton, Mass.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided herein are methods and compositions for the detection of silent carriers of chromosomal deletion alleles in a human subject using haploid cells (e.g., sperm cells or egg cells) derived from the subject. The methods provided herein allow for the detection of silent (2+0) carriers of SMA, where the individual has a deletion of the SMN1 gene on one chromosome 5 hom...