US Patent Issued to The Regents of the University of California on Feb. 4 for "Virus-based piezoelectric energy generation" (South Korean, American Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,218,609, issued on Feb. 4, was assigned to The Regents of the University of California (Oakland, Calif.).

"Virus-based piezoelectric energy generation" was invented by Seung-Wuk Lee (Walnut Creek, Calif.) and Byung Yang Lee (Seoul, South Korea).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention provides for a modified virus, such as a recombinant M13 phage, which in an array, such as a film, is capable of producing piezoelectricity. The modified virus comprises a coat protein can displays a negatively charged amino acid sequence. The present invention provides for a device comprising a piezoelectric element comprising a suitable virus, s...