MIT, Harvard Face New Challenge to Gene-Editing Patent

A patent on a revolutionary gene-editing technology held by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University group is facing a validity challenge.

Benson Hill Biosystems Inc.'s petition with a U.S. Patent and Trademark office review board challenges all claims of U.S. Patent No. 9,790,490, which describes systems and methods of using a CRISPR technology using a protein referred to as Cpf1. The ’490 patent is held by MIT and Harvard and their joint medical research venture, the Broad Institute Inc. Benson Hill offers its customers new CRISPR nucleases that it says can delete, edit, or replace genetic ...