MilliporeSigma, a leader in genome editing, has announced that the Chinese Patent Office has issued a notice granting MilliporeSigma's patent application for the company's CRISPR technology used in a genomic-integration method for eukaryotic cells.

MilliporeSigma, which has a 13-year history in the genome-editing field, has related patent filings for its insertion CRISPR method in the U.S., Brazil, India and Japan. The company already has had similar key patents granted in Australia, Canada, Europe, Israel, Singapore and South Korea.

This forthcoming patent in China covers chromosomal integration, or cutting of the chromosomal sequence of eukaryotic cells such as mammalian and plant cells and insertion of an external or donor DNA sequence into those cells using CRISPR. Scientists can replace a disease-associated mutation with a beneficial or functional sequence, a method important for creating disease models and gene therapy. Additionally, the method can be used to insert transgenes that label endogenous proteins for visual tracking within cells.