US Patent Issued to President and Fellows of Harvard College on Nov. 18 for "Genome engineering" (American, Spanish Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,473,575, issued on Nov. 18, was assigned to President and Fellows of Harvard College (Cambridge, Mass.).

"Genome engineering" was invented by George M. Church (Brookline, Mass.), Luhan Yang (Somerville, Mass.), Marc Guell (Barcelona, Spain) and Joyce Lichi Yang (Cambridge, Mass.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods are provided for altering target DNA in a cell genetically modified to express a Cas 9 enzyme that forms a co-localization complex with a guide RNA complementary to the target DNA and that cleaves the target DNA in a site specific manner. Methods include introducing into the cell a first foreign nucleic acid encoding a donor...