Again, more deliberate misinformation reported on this forum....

Again, more deliberate misinformation reported on this forum.

There is significant difference between the research conducted by ARR research partners at Penn State and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory when compared to the 2013 filed WO patent for separating rare earth elements. These being as follows:
• The filed WO patent (pending) has been abandoned in the US during examination on 08/01/2019, US Patent application No 14897224.
• Patent of a bacterium must be novelty, non-obviousness, and utility.
- original forms and strains of bacterium cannot be patented.
- patents need to be limited to a known modified bacterium spp.
In the WO patent case, the scope of its claims is too broad and consequently rejected.
• Complete different bacterium.
The DOE funded researchers are using modified strains of Hansschlegelia quercus (found in English oak buds) whereas the WO patent refer to cupriavidus metallidurans and citrobacter spp.

Additionally, Penn State Research Foundation have filed a patent for they research, published in 2021 as US 17272624 or W0/2020/051274 for “metal-binding protein and use thereof” by J. A. Cotruvo and J. A. Mattocks.

If anyone looking for the latest news from our research partners this was released on 31 May 2023

A protein mines, sorts rare earths better than humans, paving way for green tech | Penn State University (psu.edu)

or the latest scientific article in the Nature journal (open access)

Enhanced rare-earth separation with a metal-sensitive lanmodulin dimer | Nature

Mattocks, J.A., Jung, J.J., Lin, CY. et al. Enhanced rare-earth separation with a metal-sensitive lanmodulin dimer. Nature 618, 87–93 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05945-5