Breakthrough gene-editing technology belongs to Harvard, MIT -U.S. tribunal

 A U.S. tribunal overseeing patent disputes ruled on Monday that patents on the breakthrough gene-editing technology known as CRISPR belong to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's decision is a defeat for the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Vienna and Nobel Prize-winning researcher Emmanuelle Charpentier.

Harvard's and MIT's Broad Institute, which obtained the first CRISPR patent in 2014 and later obtained related patents, said the decision confirmed its patents were properly issued.

CRISPR lets scientists edit genes by using biological scissors that can edit DNA.

The technology is being tested in clinical trials to potentially help cure diseases caused by genetic mutations and abnormalities.

Jennifer Doudna of UC Berkeley and Charpentier of the University of Vienna had been first to seek a CRISPR patent in 2012. Eight years later they shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their CRISPR work.

https://www.userwalls.com/n/breakthrough-gene-editing-technology-belongs-harvard-mit-tribunal-2888460/