U.S. Patent Office Grants Second Charpentier/Doudna Patent Covering CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editing

ERS Genomics announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, ERS Genomics’ co-founder, together with the University of California and University of Vienna, their second U.S. patent with claims covering the use of CRISPR/Cas9 technology for gene editing. The patent covers compositions of both single and dual guide RNAs in all environments including use in human and animal cells.

“This is the second U.S. patent to issue from the seminal discoveries of Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna and their research teams,” commented Eric Rhodes, CEO of ERS Genomics. “This patent was not involved in the recently terminated interference with the Broad Institute. We expect many more additional patents to issue, including from the previously allowable application that was involved in the terminated interference. But importantly, as with the first U.S. patent to issue, these claims are very broad and applicable to use in human, animal, and plant cells and now also include bacteria.”

The CRISPR/Cas9 patents have been filed broadly throughout the world and have already been granted in over 45 countries, including throughout the EU, US, Japan, China, and elsewhere.