US Patent Issued to Duke University on April 29 for "Multicistronic miRNA delivery for cardiac reprogramming" (North Carolina Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,285,444, issued on April 29, was assigned to Duke University (Durham, N.C.).

"Multicistronic miRNA delivery for cardiac reprogramming" was invented by Conrad P. Hodgkinson (Durham, N.C.) and Victor J. Dzau (Durham, N.C.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The invention provides a method of promoting reprogramming of a cardiac fibroblast into a cardiomyocyte by contacting the cardiac fibroblast with an isolated polynucleotide molecule comprising at least two functional miRNA sequences using a multicistronic expression system for reprogramming of fibroblasts into functional mature cardiomyocytes."

The patent was filed on Dec. 3, 2021, under App...