CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Codon Devices Inc. announced today that the Company has filed a lawsuit against Blue Heron Biotechnology of Bothell, WA. The Complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, asserts that Blue Heron Biotechnology, through use of its Genemaker(r) gene synthesis platform, is infringing five U.S. patents.
The asserted patents, which cover pioneering DNA error correction technologies, include United States Patent Nos. 5,459,039; 5,556,750; 5,679,522; 5,702,894; and 5,750,335, all of which are exclusively licensed to Codon Devices. The Complaint seeks unspecified monetary damages and a court injunction against future infringement by Blue Heron Biotechnology.
About Codon Devices
Codon Devices, based in Cambridge, MA, is a privately-held biotechnology company focused on enabling commercial applications of synthetic biology. Codon Devices’ proprietary synthesis and design technologies improve the productivity, throughput and flexibility of its industrial, pharmaceutical and academic customers in a paradigm shift to what the Company calls Constructive Biology(TM). The Company’s focus is on developing and delivering high-value products and design services in a variety of application areas, including engineered gene libraries, engineered cells that produce novel pharmaceuticals, improved vaccines, agricultural products, and biorefineries for the production of industrial chemicals and energy. Codon Devices’ BioFAB(TM) platform uses sophisticated informatics, robotics and sequencing technologies to accurately synthesize genetic codes orders of magnitude more rapidly and cost-effectively than other currently available technology. Codon Devices is currently scaling the platform to design and construct engineered genetic devices hundreds of kilobases to megabases in length.
Founded in 2004 within Flagship Ventures, Codon Devices commenced laboratory operations in March 2005. The Company announced a Series A financing round of $13 million in June 2005 and achieved first revenues in November 2005. Investors include Alloy Ventures, Flagship Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. In December 2006, the Company closed a $20M Series B financing led by Highland Capital Partners, with all previous investors participating. Codon Devices’ scientific founders include Scientific Advisory Board Chairman George Church, Harvard Medical School; Drew Endy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Joseph Jacobson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab; Jay Keasling, University of California, Berkeley; and Brian Baynes, Codon Devices, Inc.
Codon Devices, Inc.
CONTACT: Leda Notchey of Codon Devices, Inc., +1-617-995-7982, or Fax,+1-617-995-7970
