LONDON: Efforts to patent the
first synthetic life form would give its creator a monopoly on a range of
genetic engineering, said a top UK scientist who helped sequence the human
genome.
Professor John Sulston said that the run for patent would
inhibit important research.
US-based Dr Craig Venter led the
artificial life form research, details of which were published last week.
Sulston and Venter clashed over intellectual property when they
raced to sequence the genome in 2000.
Venter led a private sector
effort, which was to have seen charges for access to the information, while
Sulston was part of a government and charity-backed effort to make the genome
freely available to all scientists.
"The confrontation 10 years ago
was about data release," the BBC quoted Sulston as saying.
"We said
that this was the human genome and it should be in the public domain. And I'm
extremely glad we managed to pull this out of the bag," he added.
Now the old rivals are at odds again over Venter's efforts to apply
for patents on the artificially created organism, nicknamed Synthia.
And Sulston, who is based at the University of Manchester, has said
that patenting would be "extremely damaging".
"I've read through
some of these patents and the claims are very, very broad indeed," said Sulston.
"I hope very much these patents won't be accepted because they would
bring genetic engineering under the control of the J Craig Venter Institute
(JCVI). They would have a monopoly on a whole range of techniques," he added.
A spokesman for Venter, of the J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in
Maryland and California, said: "There are a number of companies working in the
synthetic genomic/biology space and also many academic labs.
"Most
if not all of these have likely filed some degree of patent protection on a
variety of aspects of their work so it would seem unlikely that any one group,
academic centre or company would be able to hold a 'monopoly' on anything.
and discussion on all issues surrounding synthetic genomics/biology,
including intellectual property, is very necessary for this
"As the JCVI
team and Dr Venter have said, open dialogue field so these questions and
discussions are all very important."
Sulston made the comments at
the Royal Society in London where he was discussing a report entitled 'who owns
Science?’
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