Company Gains Research Rights To Tongan Genome

spam_it_to_me_baby writes: "An Australian listed company, Autogen, has acquired research rights to the Kingdom of Tonga's gene pool. The Pacific island's 108,000 residents will be used by the company to identify genes that cause common diseases. Autogen says serum or DNA samples collected in Tonga shall remain the property of Tonga, while Autogen will build the genetic database on which the research will be based. More here." Similar to research going to collect the genetic information of everyone in Iceland, another place with a winning combination of low population and historical isolation. A single company (Decode) also won the "rights" to that information, for a mere $200 million.

Comments

Re:So that'd be genome.to would it?

[snookums]

In case you are unaware, Tonga is an extremely poor country.

The "autocratic monarchy" derided in other posts are really not the uncaring sycophants that people might think. I happen to know someone related to the Tongan royal family (who lives in Australia) and he is one of the kindest, most honest and genuine men that I have met. He regularly involves himself in fund-raising activities to better the lives of the people in his home village in Tonga.

I believe that the sale of a TLD, and some anonymous scientific data is a very wise revenue-raising decision for a developing nation to make.

Re:The Israelis have already thought of this...

[Elvis Maximus]

My memory on this is a little fuzzy, but I believe the genetic sequence the Israeli researchers were said to have sought and found was specific to certain communities of Iraqis.

IIRC they had gotten as far as identifying the sequences they would need to exploit to engineer an Iraqi-specific disease, but had not figured out how to exploit those sequences. A major sticking point was how to distinguish Iraqi Arabs from Sephardi Jews of Iraqi background; I don't recall whether this problem was resolved or not.

In fairness to the Israelis, it is worth noting that there was a tremendous uproar in the Knesset when this research was made public, and IIRC the plug was pulled at that time. But it is fairly shocking that the Israelis, of all people, would contemplate such a Mengele-esque project.

And I don't think anyone would be too surprised if research in this vein was still going on in secret.

I believe similar research was also done in Apartheid-era South Africa.

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When they're done...

[H*rus]

When they are done, maybe they can start mapping the Swiss. They've isolated themselves too and they have this very interesting gene for banking.

Mark
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

Are Tongan civil rights eroded?

[judd]

I note that apparently Autogen has exclusive rights over all samples collected in Tonga, which in turn belong to Tonga.

So if Jonah Lomu gives blood in New Zealand, it belongs to him. If he goes home to Tonga, all rights over it belong to Autogen.

./ers may not be aware that Tonga still has a autocratic monarchy, with a parliament with a majority of seats guaranteed to noble families. Tongans who want a democratic system tend to find themselves in jail. Looks to me like Autogen has cynically found a jurisdiction with a compliant and corrupt ruling clique. Shame on them.

Re:Are Tongan civil rights eroded?

[Lars Arvestad]

Deals like this can also be made in democracies. As mentioned, Iceland's deCODE struck a deal with the Icelandic government, giving them exlusive rights (time limited, I think) to commercialize the data. The public health system in a part of Sweden has done the same with a comany called Uman Genomics. Here, the company gains access to anonymized public health records. I think there is a similar initiative in Estonia.

Technically, I think the samples belongs the one collecting them. What these companies buy is the exlusive cooperation with public healt authorities. Presumably, Jonah donates blood to a company which also collects genealogy info, it would all be in order. However, without clinical records, this information will no be so valuable.

The deal seems good to me. A crucial fact is that Autogen is setting up a facility in Tonga, instead of shipping all the samples to Australia.
Lars
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Re:Are Tongan civil rights eroded?

[judd]

"monarchy != corrupt regime".

Indeed not. But this one certainly has been. If you haven't found anything by searching, you haven't looked very far.

A simple search on Google for Tonga and Corruption yields this:

1. Imprisonment of dissenting journalists.
http://www.transparency.de/documents/newsletter/ 98.2/reports.html
2. Passports and citizenship are sold to foreign nationals.
http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/spin/SPINDOC/larmour97 1.html
3. The current land minister has been convicted of illegal land transfer deals in the 80s. Critics of his appointment as minister were imprisoned.
http://www.tongatapu.net.to/tonga/news/briefs/ss 980319.htm
4. The king dissolved the parliament after it voted to impeach the minister for corruption.
http://jinx.sistm.unsw.edu.au/~greenlft/1996/250 /250p2b.htm

Etc.

I am not an American. I'm a New Zealander. (And I'm far from impressed with American efforts in the South Pacific thus far. Had there been an article about American Samoa, Kiribati, Paula, the Marshall Islands, etc, you would have seen criticism of US policy from me.)

As it is, New Zealand has a large Tongan minority and Tongan affairs are commonly in the news here. I strongly suspect I'm better informed than you are.

Re:Are Tongan civil rights eroded?

[judd]

> But your white aren't you?

How can you tell? Suppose I'm an indigenous Australian? Would that change your view?
What about if I were Japanese?

>You are subconcious racist, you write harmful things without even realizing it.

How was what I wrote harmful? To whom, precisely? If it was harmful to King Tupou, then I can't say I'm very sorry.

> Only with long and painful process of soulsearching and admission of (historical) guilt can a white learn to live as a world citizen in a colorblind multicultural world.

If you want to live in a colourblind world, you sure have a funny way of showing it :-)

Can you believe this?

[Sheeple Police]

I almost wonder if this shouldn't be an issue of human rights... What you have is a government basically selling out the individual rights of the populace for $200 million - which, if you read the article, will go the the Ministry of Health - owned by the government.....

Rather than sell their people into slavery, something clearly socially and morally unacceptable, they are essentially selling the people into a life of lab-monkeying. I'm sorry, but where is the outcry? When commercialization and trampling of human rights combine, it only makes me fear the day of MegaCorp (also known to some psychics as Microsoft) owning our governments.....

So that'd be genome.to would it?

[matthew.thompson]

They're selling their Country Specific TLD, their genome

IS there anything that these tongan's won't sell?

Re:Selective Reproduction?

[Sheeple Police]

If I had my psych notes, I could give you exact studies and what not, but this whole concept of selective breeding was explored by a psychologist, named Sheldon, under the guise that he was 'measuring body types'... the whole concept of ectomorph/endomorph/mesomorph was his classification for these, and through measuring Ivy League students (male and female) as they were accepted, he was trying to pattern the necessities for breeding an elite race of 'super-geeks' (I say geeks because they were Ivy Leaguers, but mind you, I know they were not *true* geeks, or at least not the LARGE majority).

In either event, I don't quite remember what happened to him after that. Either there was a public cry much like that against Frankenstein's monster... or there was apathy... either way, I wouldn't place it very far in the future, with such atrocities occuring....

Mind you, this was primitive studies, and in today's world of DNA manipulation and understanding, with the human genome mapped, you really have to wonder if there won't be some Neo-Sheldon who will attempt such a thing. I suspect it would be someone with a large amount of money and the guise of helping the public...

and his name shall be Bill, for he shall be evil.

In other news...

[VValdo]

• NASA has purchased exclusive ownership of the positions of stars in the Andromeda Galaxy as well as all data regarding black holes and supernovas within 300,000 light years of Earth.
• Information referring to the number of "stars of the heavens" and "the sand which is on the seashore" have been awarded to the natural sciences in a lawsuit against the omniciant almighty God (Lord vs. Descartes, 1624 p.23).
• PiGen, the supercomputer supercompany have had their patent upheld on the previously undiscovered digits "32509328202" contained deep within "pi." The courts are expected to rule on whether people using circles, including donut shops, beachball makers, automobile manufacturers, and the Frisbee company (FRZB), are infringing.
• The Madagascan ring-tailed lemur is demanding compensation from humans for "clear and blatant theft of gene-based opposable thumb technology."
• Noam Chomsky is now enforcing his patent on the "lingustic genome," including most verbs, awarded after he demonstrated that communication via language is "the result of the unfolding of a genetically determined program." ( Interview to KBS TV, Kyoto, Japan )
• The Children's Television Workshop has begun charging a license fee for commercial use of the letter "E" and the number "4." Consonants for the moment continue to be free.

-------------------

The Israelis have already thought of this...

[The Dodger]

Allegedly, Israeli scientists have identified certain unique features of the Arab/Palestinians' genome which don't appear in Israelis' genome.

And this is in a country where a significant fraction of the population believe that the only bad thing about nuking the West Bank would be the radioactive fallout that would drift across the border in Israel. Of course, on the other hand, you have the Arabs, a significant fraction of whom think that driving Israel into the sea is a perfectly reasonable policy. Fun, fun, fun...

Come to think of it, I guess that explains why the Israelis were so interested in developing their own neutron bombs. For the uninitiated, neutron bombs (invented by Dr Sam Cohen, who was part of the original Manhattan project, in cased anyone's interested in doing further research) are nuclear devices which, when detonated, generally produce a minimal blast and thermal effect, but they produce a substantial pulse of neutron radiation which penetrates hardened shelters and produces a destructive ionizing effect when it interacts with living tissue. In other words, such a weapon does not destroy buildings as much as it kills people.

In other words, with a neutron bomb, you can kill everyone in a city, without destroying the city. Get rid of your enemies, and as soon as the radiation fades, move in, clean up the mess and you have a ready-built city. Cool, huh? 'Twas all the rage during the Cold War - any decent superpower just had to have one, dahling...

Where was I? Oh yeah, genetic ethnic cleansing. I think that the knowledge and technology exists today to engineer a virus that kills only a certain ethnic group. Fortunately, noone seems to have done it yet.

At least, as far as we know.

D.
PS: Yes, I am possibly the most cynical person in the world...

Creepy

[Greyfox]

Once the Tongan genome is mapped, they could engineer a virus that kills only Tongans. Food for thought, when selling your national genome...

Someone had to put all that chaos there!
______ "Our 'n about"
\_bi_/