Like a couple of heavyweight boxers who just keep slugging it out, the University of California Berkeley (UCB) and the Broad Institute continue to pummel each other through the courts. No knockout blows yet, but in the latest ruling from the US Patent and Trademark Office, UCB may finally be ahead on points.

These two behemoths of genetic research are fighting over ownership of the breakthrough technology known as CRISPR-Cas9. It’s an extraordinary technology which enables its users to change the DNA code of any organism, cheaply and easily. You don’t even have to be a particularly skilled scientist to do it. If you have access to standard laboratory equipment and enough brains to do up your own lab coat properly, you’ll probably be able to get this technique to work.

Although CRISPR has been around for just seven years it has already enabled scientific breakthroughs that were previously unimaginable. Instead of using hideously complicated cross-breeding experiments that can take decades, researchers have been able to use gene-editing to change the DNA of crops such as rice directly. By doing so, they’ve created varieties that can grow in degraded soils whilst still increasing yields. Scientists are well on their way to generating pigs that can be used as sources of organs for transplantation into humans, and wheat strains that won’t trigger inflammatory bowel conditions. Work is also underway to use gene-editing used to tackle human illnesses such as sickle cell disease.

…continue reading ‘The Epic Legal Battle Over CRISPR’s Future Could Finally Be Over’

Image via Flickr  Some rights reserved by National Institutes of Health (NIH)

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