Inventor Disputes DNA Sequencer Patent

syntap writes: "USA Today is reporting on a story on an argument between a research company and the California Institute of Technology over who 'owns' a particular DNA sequencing technology, and they want it placed in the public domain. 'The suit also claims that millions of federal dollars were used to create the device, which would give researchers backed by the government the rights to buy and use the sequencer without paying royalties. It demands that Caltech and Applera refund millions of dollars to federal agencies for royalties they paid on sequencers used in public research.'"

Comments

some comments

[nucal]

For what it's worth: Henry Huang looks like he has a pretty impressive CV. He worked with Lee Hood from 1977-1982, a time period where Hood was making the transition from being a molecular immunologist to more of a DNA sequencing technologist. So the timing was right for him to have made a significant contribution to the DNA sequencing method. Pretty bad move to leave him off the patent if he did make a contribution.

MJ Research, who filed the lawsuit, is a manufacturer of "affordable" lab equipment - including thermocyclers for PCR amplificaton of DNA - which might have been a previous patent issue for them (since they don't explicitly mention PCR in the description). Judging from their product line, they'd like to crack the sequencing market. As an aside, they have offices "all over the world", including Lake Tahoe (Incline Village, NV) - I wonder if that's a condo?

sounds like he has a case

[NaturePhotog]

Huang says that he started with absorptive dyes because the chemistry was easier, but that he also considered the possibility of needing fluorescents -- an idea documented in his notebooks -- because they were known to be more sensitive.
...
The disclosure, signed by Smith and the Hunkapiller brothers, says they conceived the sequencer idea on Oct. 1, 1982 -- just five weeks after Huang departed.

So, the idea of using dyes (instead of radioactivity) was his. He also came up with the idea of using fluorescent dyes because of their increased sensitivity. He also came up with the idea of running the fragments through a single 'lane' of tubing to isolate them. And using an optical scanner to identify them. And using a computer to decode the results.

Sounds to me like he had an awful lot to do with it. Whether or not that means the other part of the article (that the government should get them royalty-free) isn't as clear, but it sounds to me like Henry Huang was certainly an inventor of the process.