SUPREME COURT - Patent Law and Human Genes

IMHO:  No one, IN ANY SHAPE OR FORM, should be allowed to OWN our genes OR restrict others from testing any part of our human genetic genome.  Our genes are owned by the human race, NOT a company.

Of course since today's Supreme Court Inc. is owned by industry.....

"Supreme Court Tackles Case of Patent Law, Human Genetics" PBS Newshour 4/15/2013

Excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour):  Today, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case at the intersection of law and science, specifically, genetic research, one that may well have major consequences for the future of medicine.  The question, can human genes be patented?

We turn, as always, to Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal, who was in the courtroom today and is back with us tonight.

Marcia, first, some background on this case.

MARCIA COYLE, National Law Journal:  OK.

Myriad is a Utah-based genetic research company.  And Myriad holds patents on two genes with mutations that are linked to a very high risk of breast and/or ovarian cancer.  Its patents also give it exclusive control over diagnostic testing for those genes.

About four years ago, a group of scientists, researchers, civil rights organizations, women's health organizations decided to challenge Myriad's patents in federal court.  They filed a lawsuit.  They lost.  Two courts, two lower courts have upheld Myriad's patents.  Today, they brought -- the challengers brought the case to the Supreme Court.

HEALTH - Alzheimer's Gene?

"In Preventing Alzheimer’s, Mutation May Aid Drug Quest" by GINA KOLATA, New York Times 7/11/2012

Excerpt

A study of a rare gene mutation that protects people against Alzheimer’s disease provides the strongest evidence yet that excessive levels of a normal brain substance, beta amyloid, are a driving force in the disease — bolstering hopes that anti-amyloid drugs already under development might alter the disease’s course or even prevent it.

So far, the drugs have not succeeded. But scientists not connected with the new study said it suggested that the drug companies’ big bets on anti-amyloid treatments could yet pay off.

The implication for drug development “is hugely important,” said Dr. David Altshuler, a genomics expert at Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute of Harvard and M.I.T.

And Dr. Samuel Gandy, an Alzheimer’s researcher who directs the Mount Sinai Center for Cognitive Health, called the finding the most significant in the field in two decades, since researchers first reported a mutation that leads to the disease.

The protective mutation, whose discovery was reported online Wednesday in the journal Nature, is highly uncommon — it is not the reason most people do not develop Alzheimer’s. But what intrigues researchers is how it protects the brain.

Mutations that cause Alzheimer’s lead to excessive amounts of beta amyloid in the brain; by contrast, the protective mutation slows beta amyloid production, so people make much less.

“This paper provides strong evidence that it would work in the general population if you did it right,” Dr. Altshuler said.

Scientists at the drug companies agreed. “We are thrilled,” said Ryan Watts, one of the authors of the new paper and head of the neurodegeneration labs at Genentech, which is developing two drugs to reduce brain amyloid levels.

Dr. Richard Mohs, leader of neuroscience early clinical development at Eli Lilly, said the company was “very encouraged by these study results.” They show, he said, that despite an initial failure, the strategy of focusing on drugs to reduce beta amyloid levels is “a logical path for the development of effective therapies that may slow disease progression.”

Many questions remain, of course. Most people do not have the protective gene mutation, but as common as Alzheimer’s is, most people do not get it. It is not clear why. And most who develop Alzheimer’s do not have one of the rare gene mutations that cause it. The reasons for their disease are unclear.

SCIENCE - Microbial Map of Healthy Humans

"A New Genetic Map That Could Make Your Skin Crawl" PBS Newshour 6/14/2012

Excerpt

SUMMARY: Very little has been known about the trillions of bacteria and other micro-organisms in our bodies. But now, scientists with the Human Microbiome Project have completed the first microbial map of healthy humans. Jeffrey Brown speaks with Dr. Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): It's the sort of thing that might literally make your skin crawl, but it's very much a fact of life. Each of us harbors trillions of bacteria and other microorganisms on and in our bodies.

Another fact, very little has been known about these microbes, what they are, where they are, how they differ on an individual person and from person to person. But now scientists, more than 200 of them involved in a five-year project called the Human Microbiome Project, have completed the first microbial map of healthy human beings. And that could eventually help understand and combat some diseases.

The research has just been published.

Here to tell us about it is Dr. Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the research.