CELEXION® Granted Three U.S. Patents for Renewable Chemical Manufacturing

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 1, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Celexion, a bioengineering company developing powerful platform technologies and products for partners in the pharmaceutical, industrial, agricultural, and life science research sectors, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has recently granted three U.S. patents to the company, bringing the total U.S. patents issued to Celexion to eight. These patents relate to metabolic engineering and the production of renewable chemicals enabling the construction of genome-sized DNA constructs as well as the production of valuable petrochemicals from biological sources.

U.S. Patent #8,722,385 and U.S. Patent #8,778,642 both cover biological methods of converting simple carbohydrate feedstocks into a valuable class of chemicals used in plastics, textiles, and other polymers. Traditionally, these chemicals are made from petroleum-based resources. The Celexion technology enables them to be made renewably from sugar or biomass. These patents are associated with previously issued Celexion U.S. patents 8,404,465; 8,192,976; and 8,133,704 that also describe various metabolic pathways for making renewable chemicals. A Chinese counterpart of these applications was also recently allowed.

"We are very pleased that the USPTO and Chinese Patent Office recognize these patents as novel, enabling IP for renewable chemical production and genome engineering," said Dr. Brian Baynes, CEO of Celexion and co-inventor of the renewable chemical technologies. "We believe this is just one example of how Celexion's technology continues to be at the forefront of synthetic biology."

U.S. Patent #8,748,146 relates to a new class of enzymes for precise manipulation of chromosome to genome-sized DNA sequences, which has applications in DNA repair, recombination, and synthetic biology.

About Celexion

CELEXION® LLC is a bioengineering company that develops powerful platform technologies and products for partners in the pharmaceutical, industrial, agricultural, and life science research sectors. One of the company's core technologies is the SECANT® platform: a high-throughput protein engineering system that enables large libraries of complex proteins to be displayed on the surface of eukaryotic cells and rapidly interrogated for useful properties. Other CELEXION® technologies include a fully human, full length, naive IgG antibody library for biotherapeutic lead generation; enzymatic pathways for synthesis of a variety of high-value materials from renewable feedstocks; and a novel set of enzymes for manipulation of chromosome-sized DNA. CELEXION® technologies have been extensively licensed and applied in the life science, biotherapeutics, and industrial chemical sectors. For further information, please visit www.celexionbio.com.

CELEXION® and SECANT® are registered trademarks.

For Celexion:
Dr. J. Andrew Rakestraw
888-954-4722
[email protected] 

SOURCE Celexion