Harvard, 10x Gene-Mapping Patent Cases Prompt Vizgen ‘Bombshell’

Courtroom attacks that 10x Genomics Inc. and Harvard College launched over gene-mapping technology patents have exposed the collaborators to “bombshell revelations”—uncovered by one of the defendants—that Harvard and 10x broke “long-hidden” promises to openly license “the fruits of government-funded biotechnology research.”

Pleasanton, Calif.-based 10x and Harvard sued NanoString Technologies Inc. in February 2022, then sued Vizgen Inc. about two months later, both in the US District Court for the District of Delaware. In each case, they allege infringement of patents for spatial-imaging tech that allows researchers to build “a kind of Google Earth” so they can tie a ...