CRISPR patent dispute lingers on as Nobel Laureate and Universities appeal

In a long-running dispute over specific CRISPR gene editing patents, Nobel Prize winner Emmanuelle Charpentier, Ph.D., and two universities have formally appealed. The outcome of this case could have significant ramifications for businesses developing CRISPR-based therapeutics.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has been asked by Charpentier, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Vienna to review a ruling by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that favoured the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

The patent office essentially determined that Broad was the first organisation to develop CRISPR/Cas9 for editing a certain type of human cell that can be used to create medications.

The creators of this invention were Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, a fellow Nobel laureate.

A sort of scissors that can cut any DNA molecule was developed by Charpentier and fellow Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D., and is now being employed by many businesses to develop novel medicines.