A new model for gene patents
When the National Institutes of Health (NIH) filed for patents on thousands of gene fragments in 1991, it created a furor because it was attempting to assert broad rights to sequences whose functions were unknown. The cDNA fragments NIH researchers had discovered were simply short stretches of presumably expressed genes, yet the patent the agency was seeking would give it rights both to the full genes themselves and to all their possible future uses. If NIH prevailed, researchers argued, it would potentially discourage further work on those genes. Now the head of the genome project at the Department of Energy (DOE) - NIH's partner in the program - has proposed an alternative approach to gene patenting. At a meeting last week of a congressional Office of Technology Assessment panel that is preparing a report on this issue, DOE's David Galas revealed that University of Washington genome researcher Leroy Hood is preparing to file a patent application that could serve as a model for such patents in the future. Hood's team has been sequencing the genes encoding the beta chain of the human T cell receptor. Mutations in the T cell receptor genes may lead to any of a number of autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. A broad patent on the genes could therefore conceivably cover not only techniques for diagnosing autoimmune diseases but also of therapies for the conditions, and indeed anything involving T cell activity. But Hood's patent application won't make such broad claims. Instead, Hood, with DOE's support, will not seek to patent the genes but will claim only the specific uses of developing the diagnostic and therapeutic tools for dealing with specific autoimmune diseases. By restricting patents just to known uses the problems of gene ownership are neatly avoided.
- OSTI ID:
- 6528049
- Journal Information:
- Science (Washington, D.C.); (United States), Vol. 260:5104; ISSN 0036-8075
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENES
PATENTS
GENETIC MAPPING
LEGAL ASPECTS
DNA SEQUENCING
GENE MUTATIONS
IMMUNE SYSTEM DISEASES
LYMPHOCYTES
RECEPTORS
US DOE
ANIMAL CELLS
BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS
BLOOD
BLOOD CELLS
BODY FLUIDS
CONNECTIVE TISSUE CELLS
DISEASES
DOCUMENT TYPES
LEUKOCYTES
MAPPING
MATERIALS
MEMBRANE PROTEINS
MUTATIONS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PROTEINS
SOMATIC CELLS
STRUCTURAL CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
US ORGANIZATIONS
550400* - Genetics