Search This Blog

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Inventing life: patent law and synthetic biology

Mz2bmc9w-1330042804

Synthetic biology may help us create artificial life, but how should we patent it? Wellcome Images

With promises of improved medical treatments, greener energy and even artificial life, the field of synthetic biology has captured the public imagination and attracted significant government and commercial investment.

This excitement reached a crescendo on 21 May 2010, when scientists at the J Craig Venter Institute in the United States announced that they had made a “self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell”. This was the first living cell to have an entirely human-made genome, which means that all of the cell’s characteristics were controlled by a DNA sequence designed by scientists.

Read More: http://theconversation.edu.au/inventing-life-patent-law-and-synthetic-biology-5178

No comments:

Post a Comment