US protein engineering patent awarded to Protéus
Reinforces the European patent granted last year
French industrial biotech company Protéus, a subsidiary of the PCAS group, has been granted a US protein-engineering patent.
US Patent No. 7,923,236 entitled: ‘Method of determining the mutational load of a gene library obtained by random mutagenesis of a particular gene and means for implementing same’ is a counterpart of the firm’s European patent EP1774032 granted last year.
Jean-François Bloch, deputy general manager and IP manager at Proteus said the US patent reinforces the firm’s IP position and global leadership in the field of protein engineering and molecular directed evolution.
The patented technology belongs to the EvoSight protein engineering platform, which also includes L-Shuffling technology for gene shuffling. The invention provides insights into protein plasticity and the potential of evolution, dramatically accelerating the identification of improved proteins variants. Based on the processing of experimental data using a proprietary algorithm, it enables a rational approach to randomised directed evolution processes such as random mutagenesis.
The technology has already been used for developing new enzymes for industrial manufacturing processes in a variety of fields including green chemistry.
