Patent 11208652 was granted and assigned to President and Fellows of Harvard College on December, 2021 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Methods and compositions of altering mitochondrial DNA of a eukaryotic cell are provided using one or more of a mitochondrial specific adeno-associated virus to deliver one or more nucleic acids encoding CRISPR system including a Cas9 protein or its nuclease inactive variant and a guide RNA into a mitochondria for expression within the mitochondria. The Cas9 system can cut, nick or regulate a target mitochondrial nucleic acid.