GeneLancet: U.S. Patent No. 12,742,162 Issues on LgRNA–Nucleic Acid Template Conjugates

GeneLancet: U.S. Patent No. 12,742,162 Issues on LgRNA–Nucleic Acid Template Conjugates

Inventor-owned grant to be assigned exclusively to GeneLancet, covering template conjugates for prime editing, gene writing, STAR, and other nucleic-acid-templated editors

DOYLESTOWN, Pennsylvania, September 22, 2026. The United States Patent and Trademark Office today issued U.S. Patent No. 12,742,162 to Dr. Minghong Zhong, scientific founder of GeneLancet. The patent covers conjugates of chemically ligated guide RNA (LgRNA) with nucleic acid templates of both RNA and DNA. Issued from U.S. Application No. 16/994,660, it is the composition-of-matter and method patent that extends the foundational LgRNA platform into templated, polymerase-driven gene editing, including prime editing (PE), gene writing (GW), and GeneLancet’s STAR and DuoSTAR editors.

What Issued Today

U.S. Patent No. 12,742,162 issued from Application 16/994,660, published as US 2021/0054371 A1 under the title “Conjugates of Guide RNA-Cas Protein Complex.” The granted patent claims LgRNA–nucleic acid template conjugates, guide RNAs chemically joined to a donor or editing template that is DNA or RNA, and uses of those conjugates with CRISPR-Cas proteins and with polymerases.

Because the template is covalently attached to the guide, the same molecule that finds the genomic address also carries the sequence to be written. That architecture is applicable to several editor classes:

• Prime editing (PE), a nickase or equivalent guided to a locus, with the RNA template of a pegRNA that a reverse transcriptase uses to write the intended edit.
• Gene writing (GW), RNA-template-directed writing of insertions, substitutions, or longer payloads without relying on a double-strand break as the primary mechanism.
• STAR editing and DuoSTAR editing, GeneLancet’s Seek-Tag-Amend-Release polymerase editors, in which an LgRNA with a covalently linked DNA template (segNA) recruits a cellular polymerase or a fused polymerase to amend the target and release the complex for another turnover.
• Other genome editors that use a guide-tethered RNA or DNA template as the information source for synthesis at the target.

The claims are not limited to a single commercial editor brand. They cover the conjugate itself, LgRNA joined to an RNA template, a DNA template, or a chimeric template, and methods of using that conjugate with a Cas protein, a nickase, a deactivated Cas, and a polymerase. US 12,742,162 is GeneLancet’s core platform patent once assigned, not only a follow-on to the 2018 and 2023 LgRNA composition patents.

The Foundational Patents

U.S. 12,742,162 sits on two earlier issued patents that remain the composition foundation of the platform. Those patents claim chemically ligated guide RNA, RNA modules joined by non-nucleotide chemical linkers, and their complexes with CRISPR-Cas9.

Dr. Zhong, the CEO of GeneLancet, has exclusively assigned related pending applications, including continuation-in-part filings (US 2025/027115 A1) and manufacturing-process inventions (US 2023/167441 A1), to GeneLancet as one corporate owner.

The Assignment

The planned conveyance is an exclusive assignment of the entire right, title, and interest. Upon execution of the assignment instrument, GeneLancet will own:

• U. S. Patent No. 12,742,162, issuing today from Application 16/994,660;
• the underlying applications and the right to claim priority to them;
• continuations, continuations-in-part, divisionals, reissues, reexaminations, extensions, and foreign counterparts;
• any patent that issues on any of the foregoing; and
• the right to sue for past, present, and future infringement.

US12,742,162B2, the platform’s core composition-and-method patent

LgRNA is a chemically ligated, structurally distinct, single-molecule guide, the targeting half of an editor. US 12,742,162 attaches the writing half: a nucleic acid template, RNA or DNA, covalently carried on the same guide. GeneLancet’s medicines, LgRNA-conjugate-directed polymerase editors for the treatment of various diseases, require both halves.

Statement from the Inventor:

“US 12,742,162 gives us the template on the guide, RNA or DNA, so the same molecule that finds the gene can write the correction. That is prime editing, gene writing, STAR, and every polymerase editor that works this way. For patients, it points to more precise and potentially safer medicines, editors that make the intended correction without relying on the double-strand DNA breaks conventional gene editing depends on. In addition to the already assigned, later-filed applications, I will assign this patent, and the family under it, exclusively to GeneLancet.”

– Minghong Zhong, Ph.D., Inventor, Scientific Founder, and CEO of GeneLancet

About GeneLancet

GeneLancet (GeneLancet Biosciences, Inc.) is a privately held gene-editing company founded in 2019. Its principal place of business is Doylestown, Pennsylvania. GeneLancet develops precise, scalable LgRNA-guided genome editors, including STAR and DuoSTAR polymerase editors, for one-time or finite-course treatment of diseases that remain poorly served by existing medicines.

Note: Dr. Zhong will exclusively assign US 12,742,162 to GeneLancet Biosciences, Inc. as company-owned platform IP. This announcement is a statement of that planned exclusive assignment.