Yeast Chassis Pathway Balancing Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- 35.6% concentration. The top 5 of 100 ranked assignees hold 134 of the 376 records in scope — a dense cluster at the top with a long tail below.
- Filings nearly tripled. From 9 in 2021 to 27 in 2024, a +200% increase over that three-year span, after peaking at 37 in 2020.
- Fermentation dominates, testing lags. C12P fermentation and enzymatic synthesis claims sit on 75.5% of records, while C12Q measurement and testing claims cover only 16.5%.
Filing growth compares 2021 (9 records) with 2024 (27) — 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 376 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks 376 published records at the intersection of engineered yeast hosts and metabolic flux control — filings that claim enzyme ratio tuning, precursor supply, byproduct suppression or flux analysis inside a yeast chassis, classified under C12N15/81, C12N1/16 or C12Q1/68. The scope spans 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off, capturing both foundational genome-engineering patents and the more recent wave of pathway-specific balancing claims.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent filing years in any trend chart are understated and should not be read as a slowdown. The fairer comparison unit across this landscape is the patent family, which is how the assignee ranking below is counted.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 376-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim weight.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings ran at 22 in 2017, rose to a peak of 37 in 2020, dipped to 9 in 2021, then climbed back to 27 by 2024 — a +200% increase over that three-year span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still filling in due to publication lag and should not be read as a decline.
IPC subclass composition
C12N covers all 376 records by definition of the search scope. C12P (fermentation and enzymatic synthesis) appears on 75.5% of records, confirming that most claims target production pathways rather than measurement. C12Q (enzyme/DNA testing, 16.5%), C07K (peptides and proteins, 12.0%), A61K (medicinal preparations, 8.2%), A01H (plant breeding, 8.0%), C12R (microorganism indexing, 7.2%) and G01N (material analysis, 7.2%) round out the secondary claim territory — each a smaller, more contestable slice.
Shares are the percentage of the 376 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Yeast Chassis Pathway Balancing with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about yeast chassis pathway balancing and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaThe most-cited records in this dataset
US20180320203A1 — Limiting yeast-produced trehalose in fermentation
The application claims recombinant yeast host cells carrying a first genetic modification that reduces native glycerol production (or enables expression of a heterologous glucoamylase) and a second modification that reduces native trehalose production (or enables expression of a heterologous trehalase). The combination is used to suppress unwanted trehalose and glycerol byproducts during fermentation.Filed by Danstar Ferment AG, published 2018-11-08.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20050124010A1 | Whole cell engineering by mutagenizing a substantial portion of a starting genome combining mutations and opt… | 268 |
| 2 | US7033781B1 | Whole cell engineering by mutagenizing a substantial portion of a starting genome, combining mutations, and o… | 120 |
| 3 | WO2012149470A1 | Methods for genomic modification | 109 |
| 4 | WO2015095804A1 | Methods for genomic integration | 96 |
| 5 | WO2006014837A1 | Genetically modified host cells and use of same for producing isoprenoid compounds | 82 |
| 6 | US7253001B2 | Metabolic engineering for improved xylose utilisation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae | 63 |
| 7 | US6979733B2 | Epoxide hydrolases, nucleic acids encoding them and methods of making and using them | 47 |
| 8 | US8017375B2 | Yeast organism producing isobutanol at a high yield | 46 |
| 9 | WO2012017083A1 | Methods and products for production of wax esters | 37 |
| 10 | US20040142456A1 | Xylose-fermenting recombinant yeast strains | 33 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favor older filings; treat them as a signal of foundational influence rather than current commercial relevance.
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Three patterns stand out once the records are grouped by assignee, technology class and receiving office.
A dense core, then a long tail
The leading assignee alone accounts for 36 records, and the top 5 of 100 ranked assignees together hold 134 — 35.6% of the field. The top 10 extend that to 200 records, 53.2% of the total, meaning roughly half of all documented activity sits outside those ten names.
Activity rebuilt after a 2021 trough
Filings fell to 9 in 2021 after peaking at 37 in 2020, then climbed back to 27 by 2024 — a +200% increase over that span. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, 2025 and 2026 counts will continue to rise as more records surface.
Fermentation claims crowd the core
C12P (fermentation and enzymatic synthesis) sits on three-quarters of records, while C12Q measurement and testing claims cover just 16.5%. That gap suggests flux-monitoring and analytical methods are comparatively less claimed than the production pathways they would support.
US and PCT carry the bulk of filings
The United States receives 142 records, well ahead of EPO (55), WIPO/PCT (52), Canada (34), Australia (25) and Israel (13). Applicants pursuing broad coverage are routing through PCT before narrowing to these secondary offices.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to yeast chassis pathway balancing, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
The ranked assignee list spans 100 companies and institutions counted by patent family; it is the full dataset the endpoint returns, not a curated top-50 or top-100.
A single leader well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 36 records against a fifth-place figure of 22 and a tenth-place figure of 10 — a steep drop-off that signals one applicant has built a genuinely broad portfolio while most others hold narrower, more defensible positions.
Half the field sits with ten names
The top 10 of 100 ranked assignees combine for 200 records, 53.2% of all 376 in scope. The remaining 90 ranked assignees and any unranked filers share the other 176 records, which is where smaller, more specific claims tend to sit.
Cross-filing is limited but pointed
Only 10 co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset. The strongest pairing links an academic engineering institute with an agricultural genomics research institute, and a second links an industrial biotech firm with a major chemicals company — signs of applied partnerships rather than broad industry-wide co-filing.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Amyris Inc. | 0 | — |
| Technical University of Denmark | 0 | — |
| Regents of the University of California | 0 | — |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 0 | — |
| Melt&Marble AB | 0 | — |
| Diversa Corp. | 0 | — |
| Danstar Ferment AG | 0 | — |
| Agricultural Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The trends above describe the field as a whole. Turning them into a filing or freedom-to-operate decision means drilling into specific claims and specific competitors.
Map claims against your own pathway design
Run the specific enzyme ratios, precursor pathways or byproduct targets in your project against this dataset's claim language to see which are already occupied.
Explore in EurekaTrack the leading assignee's recent filings
With 36 records and a portfolio well ahead of the rest of the field, the top assignee's newest claims are the first thing to check before committing to a design.
Explore in EurekaWatch the under-claimed branches for movement
Sub-areas like flux-sensor integration and precursor feedback control currently carry lighter claim density; new filings there would signal a shift worth monitoring.
Explore in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
This dataset contains 376 published records classified under C12N15/81, C12N1/16 or C12Q1/68 that also match search terms for engineered yeast hosts and metabolic flux control. The count includes applications and granted patents from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 data cut-off. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the true number of filings from 2024 onward is higher than what is currently published and searchable.
The ranked assignee list covers 100 companies and institutions counted by patent family, with the leader holding 36 records and a steep drop to 22 at fifth place and 10 at tenth place. The top 5 assignees combined hold 35.6% of all 376 records, and the top 10 hold 53.2%. That leaves close to half the field distributed among a long tail of smaller filers, which is common in a technology area still being actively defined.
Filing activity peaked at 37 records in 2020, dropped to 9 in 2021, and then rebuilt to 27 by 2024 — a documented +200% increase over that three-year span. It would be a mistake to read 2025 or 2026 figures as a slowdown, since publication lag means recent years are still being backfilled with records that were filed but not yet published. The 2021-to-2024 trend is the most reliable recent signal of momentum.
US20180320203A1, filed by Danstar Ferment AG, claims recombinant yeast host cells with two combined genetic modifications: one reducing native glycerol production or enabling a heterologous glucoamylase, and a second reducing native trehalose production or enabling a heterologous trehalase. It specifically targets suppression of trehalose and glycerol as fermentation byproducts. Anyone engineering a yeast strain for similar byproduct suppression using this exact combination of modifications should review the claim scope closely before proceeding, though single-modification approaches or targeting different byproducts may fall outside its coverage.
The IPC composition shows fermentation and enzymatic synthesis claims (C12P) on 75.5% of records, while measurement and testing claims (C12Q) appear on only 16.5% — a meaningful gap between how much production-side claim space is occupied versus analytical and flux-sensing methods. Areas like real-time flux-sensor integration, non-glycerol byproduct suppression routes, and precursor-supply feedback control circuits show lighter claim density relative to the core. These are reasonable starting points for a freedom-to-operate search, though they require confirming against the full claim text rather than the IPC class alone.
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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.