The UC system and its partners, the University of Vienna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, have received their eighth patent for CRISPR-Cas9, a revolutionary gene-editing technology, from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as of July 16.

CRISPR gene editing was developed by a team including campus professor of biochemistry Jennifer Doudna and former campus postdoctoral researcher Martin Jinek, as well as professor Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology and Krzysztof Chylinski of the University of Vienna.

According to a press release from Berkeley News, the UC’s family of eight patents covers CRISPR methods for editing genes in any environment, whether the cells are in a plant, an animal or a human. This newest patent focuses specifically on the use of CRISPR gene editing within cells.

“The number of patents associated with the Doudna-Charpentier team’s breakthroughs and the increasing breadth of its CRISPR-Cas9 portfolio reflect upon the significance of these inventions and the range of new possibilities they introduce for the benefit of human welfare,”said Eldora Ellison, the lead patent strategist on CRISPR-Cas9 matters for the UC and a director at the Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox law firm, in an email from Cate Cronin, a member of the university’s public relations team related to CRISPR-Cas9 matters.

“We are pleased to add this technique to our portfolio as yet another breakthrough that will ultimately enable more people to live healthier lives,” Ellison said in the email.

The achievements of the Doudna-Charpentier team in advancing gene editing are recognized on an international scale. In addition to the eight patents issued to the team by the U.S. patent office, the team has patents issued with the European Patent Office, which represents more than 30 countries, as well as patent offices in countries such as the United Kingdom, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico, according to the press release.

The UC, as part of its commitment to use its patented technologies to better mankind, allows any nonprofit institution to use UC-patented technologies for research purposes. It also promotes commercialization of patented CRISPR technologies through an exclusive license to the patent family from UC and University of Vienna, two of the three co-owners, given to Caribou Biosciences Inc. of Berkeley, which then sublicenses technology to other private firms.