Editing DNA For Fame and Fortune

An anonymous reader writes: The world of genome editing is booming, with several startups racing to develop new tools and therapies out of the DNA-hacking insights of several hotshot scientists. Venture capitalists are pouring big money into this so-called 'CRISPR craze,' which has attracted over $600 million in funding since the beginning of 2013. But major questions loom over who is the rightful owner of this technology, and the leading parties are battling for control of the key patents. Will this new crop of genome-editing companies survive long enough to fulfill their promise of treating genetic disorders? As the patent feud wages on, lives and fortunes hang in the balance.

Comments

If it ever takes off, no stopping it

[sideslash]

If genetic modifications ever emerge as the medical miracle they're supposed to, there will be no stopping the use of the technology. All you need is for a country to refuse to enforce or recognize the patents, and presto -- the world's foremost medical tourism destination. I sort of despise the idea of patenting features of nature, so perhaps a bit of schadenfreude there.

I have no doubt the information will be spread, too. If Snowden can be widely hailed as a hero for leaking the NSA's rampant cybercrime, just imagine the pats on the back for the guy who leaks the key to cancer. (Yeah, yeah, along with threats of jail time, so he'll have to light out for Cambodia or whatever.)

Re:If it ever takes off, no stopping it

[ColdWetDog]

It will likely be China. You won't get a molecule or drug out of these kinds of 'treatments' - you'll get a protocol that involves specialized handling and specific, tailor made molecules. So you likely won't see patent busting big chemical factories like you now see in India, you need a back room (or more likely an entire building) of highly developed infrastructure, trained people and some significant time to get these techniques to work. It won't be quite as easy as TFA seems to think it is*.

China fits the bill pretty well.

* While you very well may get kitchen biochemists manipulating CRISPER-CAS9, the jump from mucking about the DNA code to a useful therapeutic is very, very wide. Which is why all of these startups are running with multi million dollar VC infusions.

Re:CRISPR second generation medicine

[Adriax]

Charisma is just one SPECIAL you can raise with this. I'd personally be more interested in Luck.

I wonder how many caps it'll cost per treatment?

Re:Time to recompile humanity

[sinij]

Feature requests:

1. Perfect recall

2. Integrated ALU capable of complex math

3. Direct userland control over driver behavior (e.g. uninstall gluttony)

4. More wetware redundancies to increase uptime

5. Run-time patching and garbage collection to reduce the need for nightly downtime

Patent What?

[g0bshiTe]

What's to patent? DNA is clearly prior art and in public domain.

PUT THE OLD COMMENT LINKS BACK

[sootman]

That is all.

Re:Time to recompile humanity

[holmstar]

It is confidently asserting that because you don't understand nature's ways that you are observing a suboptimal solution.

Ha! What in the world suggests to you that we're an optimal solution? Evolution only makes an organism fit enough to reproduce and rear the next generation. Things that cause problems rarely, or create health in old age are poorly selected for. If we're optimized for anything, it would be as tribal hunter-gatherers, not modern civilization. Science is not magic. I am confident that we can do better, if we choose to do so.