ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,344,853, issued on July 1, was assigned to University of Kentucky Research Foundation (Lexington, Ky.) and R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (Winston-Salem, N.C.).
"bZIP transcription factors regulate conversion of nicotine to nornicotine and reduce levels of tobacco specific (TSNA) precursors" was invented by Ling Yuan (Lexington, Ky.), Sanjay K. Singh (Lexington, Ky.), Sitakanta Pattanaik (Lexington, Ky.) and Darlene Madeline Lawson (Chapel Hill, N.C.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of decreasing conversion of nicotine to nornicotine is provided herein. The methods includes administering at least one basic region/leucine zipper (bZIP) ...