Diversa Corporation announced today that it has been issued U.S. Patent No. 5,939,250 protecting evolution of gene families. The patent includes key claims covering the evolution of naturally occurring heterogeneous populations of molecules by a wide range of methods to generate proteins or enzymes having desired characteristics.

"We are very pleased with the issuance of this key patent. This patent protects screening and evolving heterogeneous populations of DNA. Diversa has successfully employed this powerful patented technology in our collaborations, utilizing methods for rapid biodiversity screening together with an array of proprietary evolution technologies. We are combining the best genes available from nature with the most efficient evolution strategies to achieve maximum performance,'' stated Dr. Jay Short, Diversa's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Since its inception in 1994, Diversa has focused on developing both its unique ability to access the incredible diversity of nature via its proprietary technologies for recovery and screening of nucleic acids derived from the environment, as well as its powerful Gene Site-Saturation Mutagenesis (GSSM)(TM) and Gene Reassembly(TM) evolution strategies. To date the company's gene library collection contains the genes for over 1,000,000 organisms. Further, Diversa has discovered and characterized over 1000 enzymes from these recombinant libraries. Evolution techniques have been applied to these and other molecules to produce highly optimized proteins and small molecules of interest. This newly issued patent includes coverage for screening a heterogenous DNA population which has been exposed to mutagenesis towards production of a specified enzyme or protein, irrespective of the mutagenesis technique employed.