CRISPR Patent

The PTO had issued a patent on CRISPR to Broad and MIT. This is the beginning of something interesting.

Filed 15 October 2013 and Issued 15 April 2014! The PTO has not moved this fast since Edison!

The prime claim is:

What is claimed is:

1. A method of altering expression of at least one gene product comprising introducing into a  eukaryotic cell containing and expressing a DNA molecule having a target sequence and encoding the gene product an engineered, non- 5 naturally occurring Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)—CRISPR associated (Cas) (CRISPR-Cas) system comprising one or more vectors comprising:

a) a first regulatory element operable in a eukaryotic cell 10 operably linked to at least one nucleotide sequence encoding a CRISPR-Cas system guide RNA that hybridizes with the target sequence, and

b) a second regulatory element operable in a eukaryotic cell operably linked to a nucleotide sequence encoding a 15 Type-II Cas9 protein,

wherein components (a) and (b) are located on same or different vectors of the system, whereby the guide RNA targets the target sequence and the Cas9 protein cleaves the DNA molecule, whereby expression of the at least 20 one gene product is altered; and, wherein the Cas9 protein and the guide RNA do not naturally occur together.