Bacterial Chassis Stress Tolerance Patents: Leaders & Trends 2026
- 33.4% of all filings sit with just five assignees, while the ranked field runs 100 companies deep with a long tail of single-filing entrants.
- Filings fell -65% from a 2021 peak of 98 to 34 in 2024, a real pullback in the last complete filing years, not an artifact of publication lag.
- Diagnostic and indexing classes cover as little as 16-25% of records, far below the 91.8% claimed in core microorganism engineering — the clearest under-filed ground.
Filing growth compares 2021 (98 records) with 2024 (34) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 3,040 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this patent set covers
This landscape covers 3,040 published records filed between 2015 and the mid-2026 data cut-off, drawn from filings that combine an engineered or recombinant bacterial host with a named stress condition — solvent, acid, osmotic, oxidative, heat-shock or membrane stability — under the core genetic-engineering and microbiology classification codes. The scope is deliberately narrow: it is not general microbial engineering, but the subset where stress tolerance is claimed as part of the invention.
Read the assignee ranking, class breakdown and filing trend together, not in isolation. A high class share shows where claim space is occupied; it says nothing about whether the underlying technology works well, only that applicants have staked ground there.
Let an AI agent run this analysis on your own technology
Pick a task. Every answer cites the patents behind it.
How filings, geographies and technology classes break down
The numbers below cover 3,040 published records from 2015 through the mid-2026 data cut-off, spanning the classes, offices and years that define where bacterial chassis stress-tolerance work is actually being claimed.
Filing activity peaked in 2021, then pulled back
Filings rose to a peak of 98 in 2021 and fell to 34 by 2024, a -65% change over that span. Counts for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication trails filing by roughly 18 months, so the recent-looking decline should be read with that lag in mind rather than as a confirmed slowdown.
Coverage concentrates in microorganism engineering, with therapeutic and diagnostic overlap
C12N (microorganisms and genetic engineering) touches 91.8% of the 3,040 records, with C07K (peptides and proteins) and A61K (medicinal preparations) each appearing in over half of records. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% by design — the pattern shows how tightly host-engineering claims overlap with protein and therapeutic claims, not a mutually exclusive breakdown.
Shares are the percentage of the 3,040 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Bacterial Chassis Stress Tolerance with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about bacterial chassis stress tolerance and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaA recent filing that shows where claims are heading
Engineered gut bacteria
A genetically engineered bacterium carries a non-native copy of an operon encoding a betaine transport/import system, exemplified by the opuA operon (opuAA, opuAB, opuAC) endogenous to the Bacteroidaceae family, together with pharmaceutical compositions built around it.Filed by The University of British Columbia, published 2026-07-30 — among the most recent records in scope.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5223409A | Directed evolution of novel binding proteins | 14,049 |
| 2 | WO1995019431A1 | Zinc finger protein derivatives and methods therefor | 1,119 |
| 3 | WO1998054311A1 | Zinc finger protein derivatives and methods therefor | 1,077 |
| 4 | US6140466A | Zinc finger protein derivatives and methods therefor | 1,029 |
| 5 | US6242568B1 | Zinc finger protein derivatives and methods therefor | 966 |
| 6 | US5508192A | Bacterial host strains for producing proteolytically sensitive polypeptides | 845 |
| 7 | EP0292435A1 | Zea mays plants and transgenic zea mays plants regenerated from protoplasts or protoplast-derived cells | 661 |
| 8 | US6326351B1 | Bacillus thuringiensis CryET33 and CryET34 compositions and uses therefor | 469 |
| 9 | US6399330B1 | Bacillus thuringiensis cryet33 and cryet34 compositions and uses thereof | 468 |
| 10 | WO2003062401A2 | Compositions and methods for the detection, diagnosis and therapy of hematological malignancies | 422 |
Citation counts favor older, foundational filings within this searched corpus — read them as a signal of platform influence, not of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
Put your own technology through the same analysis
Eureka on the web
When you want the answer in the next five minutes.
The agent works the prompt against patents and technical literature, citing every source.
Run your analysis now →MCP server & REST API
When it has to run inside your own pipeline.
Patent search, landscape analysis and assignee resolution as MCP tools. Drop them into any agent framework, or call REST directly.
Browse MCP servers →What the filing data actually indicates
Three patterns stand out once family counts, class shares and citation data are read together: where claim density is real, where it is inflated by co-filing, and where the record is too thin to call a trend.
A concentrated top with a long tail beneath it
The leader alone holds 507 records against a tenth-place figure of 44 — a steep drop-off. That gap plus the top-10 share of 42.5% means over half of all filings are spread across the remaining ranked assignees and unranked filers, a genuine long-tail structure rather than an evenly distributed field.
A real pullback, read carefully at the edges
The three-year decline from 2021 to 2024 is drawn from complete publication years and should be treated as a genuine signal. The apparent further drop into 2025-2026 is not comparable, since those years are still filling in behind an 18-month publication lag.
Engineering claims dwarf indexing and testing claims
Core microorganism-engineering claims (C12N) appear in 91.8% of records, while microorganism indexing (C12R) sits at just 16.0% and material-testing claims (G01N) at 24.9%. That spread marks where claim space is dense and where it is comparatively open.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to bacterial chassis stress tolerance, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the activity has cooled
The ranked field runs 100 assignees deep, from a clear leader down through a long tail of occasional filers. Recent-year momentum data suggests the leaderboard reflects historical filing strength more than current activity, given publication lag.
A single dominant filer
The top-ranked assignee holds 507 records, more than four times the fifth-place figure of 108 — a gap wide enough to mark genuine dominance rather than a statistical artifact of the ranking method.
Dense academic co-filing at the top
The strongest co-assignee pairs in this dataset share over 100 records each, pointing to sustained joint research programs rather than one-off collaborations — a pattern typical of foundational platform IP held across university and named-inventor filings.
Leaderboard activity has gone quiet, on paper
Several of the highest-volume assignees show zero filings in the latest year and year-over-year drops of -100%. Given the roughly 18-month publication lag, this is more likely an artifact of incomplete recent data than a genuine stop in R&D.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Corixa Corp | 0 | — |
| The Regents of the University of California | 0 | -100% |
| The Scripps Research Institute | 0 | — |
| University of Vienna | 0 | -100% |
| CHARPENTIER EMMANUELLE | 0 | -100% |
| Monsanto Technology LLC | 0 | — |
| Pivot Bio Inc | 0 | -100% |
| Maxygen Inc | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis next
The figures above establish the shape of the field. Turning that into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means going deeper on specific claims and specific competitors.
Check freedom-to-operate against the densest classes
C12N and C07K claims cover more than half of all 3,040 records — before filing in either, review the specific independent claims held by the top assignees in those classes.
Run a freedom-to-operate check in EurekaTrack the assignees with dormant-looking activity
Several leading assignees show zero recent-year filings; confirm whether that reflects publication lag or an actual shift in R&D priority before assuming the field has gone quiet.
Monitor assignee activity in EurekaExplore the under-claimed diagnostic and indexing branches
G01N and C12R coverage sits well below the core engineering classes, suggesting room for narrowly drawn claims around stress-response measurement and strain classification.
Explore white space in EurekaCommon questions about this patent landscape
The assignee ranking covers 100 companies and research institutions, counted by patent family, with the leader holding 507 records against a fifth-place figure of 108 and a tenth-place figure of 44. The top 5 assignees combined account for 33.4% of all 3,040 records in scope, and the top 10 combined reach 42.5%, showing real concentration at the top alongside a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants. Universities and research institutes feature prominently alongside agricultural and pharmaceutical companies, reflecting the field's roots in both academic protein-engineering platforms and applied strain-engineering programs.
Filings rose from 46 in 2017 to a peak of 98 in 2021, then declined to 34 by 2024 — a -65% change over that three-year span. Years 2025 and 2026 currently show far fewer records, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than a confirmed drop in activity. Treat 2021-2024 as the most reliable recent trend and wait for 2025-2026 data to fill in before drawing conclusions about current filing pace.
Microorganism and genetic-engineering claims under C12N appear in 91.8% of the 3,040 records, making it the dominant class by a wide margin. Peptide and protein claims (C07K, 61.6%) and medicinal-preparation claims (A61K, 55.6%) follow closely, showing that most engineered-chassis work is claimed together with a specific protein or therapeutic application rather than as a standalone host modification. Measuring and testing claims (C12Q, 43.6%) and fermentation claims (C12P, 37.2%) round out the picture, pointing to diagnostic and production-scale interests running in parallel.
The United States leads with 991 filings, ahead of WIPO's PCT route at 490 and the European Patent Office at 462. Australia (309) and Canada (254) follow, with Israel considerably further behind at 86. This spread suggests most applicants prioritize US protection first and use the PCT and EPO routes for broader coverage, while smaller markets like Israel and Canada see comparatively lighter filing activity relative to the field's overall size.
US20260218117A1, filed by The University of British Columbia and published 2026-07-30, claims a genetically engineered bacterium carrying a non-native betaine transport/import operon (exemplified by opuA) in a host from the Bacteroidaceae family, plus related pharmaceutical compositions. Anyone building a similar osmotic-stress-tolerant gut bacterium using that specific transport mechanism and host family should review the claims closely before proceeding. Working outside the Bacteroidaceae family or using a different osmolyte transport system are the most obvious starting points for a design-around, though a full freedom-to-operate review is still warranted.
Research Bacterial Chassis Stress Tolerance in depth with Eureka
Go past this page: query the whole bacterial chassis stress tolerance corpus yourself, in your own scope.
Every answer comes back with patent numbers you can open.
Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.