US Patent Issued to President and Fellows of Harvard College on March 17 for "Engineered botulinum neurotoxin" (American, Chinese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,577,550, issued on March 17, was assigned to President and Fellows of Harvard College (Cambridge, Mass.).

"Engineered botulinum neurotoxin" was invented by Min Dong (Weatogue, Conn.), Lisheng Peng (Guangzhou, China) and Liang Tao (Boston).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed herein is a botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) polypeptide with a modified receptor binding domain (HC) having one or more amino acid mutations that modify the binding of the BoNT to the receptor. Specific mutations and combinations of mutations are also disclosed. Isolated modified HC, polypeptides comprising the modified HC, chimeric molecules, pharmaceutical composit...