New Patent Broadens iBio's Proprietary Biologics Platform

iBio, Inc.

today announced issuance of a US patent covering compositions and methods for generating clonal cell lines and plants for expressing gene products. This invention, developed by the Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology, iBio's research collaborator, is a part of iBio's broader iBioLaunch™ platform for vaccines and therapeutics. The new patent is US Patent 8,148,608 entitled "Systems and methods for clonal expression in plants." The new patent claims whole plants, root lines or plant cell lines harboring a self-replicating, episomal viral RNA vector encoding a gene of interest, and an Ri T-DNA or portion thereof sufficient to generate hairy roots. The significance of this invention is that it enables broad flexibility to manipulate the natural metabolic capacity of plants and plant cells for optimal production of a commercial product target.