Editas Medicine said the USPTO reaffirmed an earlier decision supporting broad inventorship priority for CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in a dispute involving the Broad Institute and other institutions. The update keeps the patent question in active view for a core area of commercial gene editing. The case traces to a 2022 Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision finding that Feng Zhang, the Broad Institute, MIT, and Harvard were first to invent CRISPR/Cas9 use in eukaryotic cells, including human cells. In response, the University of California, the University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier sought a patent interference in 2015, and the Federal Circuit previously sent the case back to the PTAB for reevaluation. Editas licenses foundational CRISPR/Cas9 intellectual property from the Broad and said the reaffirmation strengthens confidence as it advances in vivo gene editing candidates, including EDIT-401, which the company says has shown more than 90% mean LDL cholesterol reduction in non-human primates.