[IP Hot Topics Podcast] Innovation Conversations: Walter Isaacson, Part 1
Clinton: SCOTUS Myriad Genetics Decision 'Terrific'
Can You Patent Human Genes? ACLU Says No
Yours, Mine and Ours (not yet!): An Update on the Patentability of Human Genes
We have written a couple of times about the 23&Me phenomenon and the chance that those who enter this unknown world come back not just surprised but possibly creeped out by their quest for ancestral knowledge. USA Today...more
Valentine’s Day seemed an odd time to report the subject but CNN posted a five minute story provocatively titled as “I Slept with My Half Sibling.” This recounts the story of a Connecticut social worker who had symptoms of a...more
We previously alerted readers to the fact that the most recent data compromise of 23andMe exposed data related to Ashkenazi Jews and individuals of Chinese descent. It is reported by Ars Technica, citing TechCrunch, that...more
On June 16, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced an enforcement action against 1Health.io Inc. (“1Health,” also known as Vitagene, Inc.), a genetic testing company that analyzes consumer-provided DNA samples and uses...more
A recent enforcement action by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) against 1Health.io—which sells “DNA Health Test Kits” to consumers for health and ancestry insights—serves as a reminder that the FTC is increasingly...more
China is considering new export restrictions on advanced technologies, including, in particular, in the life sciences sectors. In late December 2022, China’s Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) issued the proposed amendment to...more
The investments in Advanced Medicinal Products (ATMPs) that use gene therapy, somatic cell therapy, and engineered tissues for preventing, treating, or curing human diseases probably represent the biggest innovation in the...more
An international cadre of scientists* from almost 70 institutions worldwide recently reported their findings in the scientific journal Nature that the domesticated dog (Canis familiaris) arose from two populations of...more
Effective January 1, 2022, California Senate Bill 41, the Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA), imposes requirements on the collection, use, and disclosure of genetic data collected or derived from direct-to-consumer...more
States continue to enact laws targeting the protection of genetic data with two important developments in California and Florida. California’s Genetic Information Privacy Act (“GIPA”), which came into effect on January 1,...more
I have written about genetic testing kits before, but this subject matter is worth repeating. I find that people don’t always understand the consequences when sending a swab to a genetic testing company. Consumer Reports...more
The Sunday edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer presented a set of stories which are becoming common in a world where Americans can buy DNA kits at the drug store and begin an online search for their ancestry. The sometimes...more
Florida and California join a growing minority of states enacting laws protecting a person’s genetic information (Nevada and Alaska also have laws). Florida’s new genetic privacy law, known as Protecting DNA Privacy Act, went...more
The humble peach has been the inspiration for pies, album titles, independent movies, and a fictional woman's baseball team, but is also an important food species, yielding 24.5 million tons globally in 2018. Like all plant...more
Utah recently signed into law SB 227, creating the Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA). The law, which is anticipated to go into effect in May 2021, is aimed at protecting genetic data collected from direct-to-consumer...more
The dire wolf (Canis dirus), prototype of the various wolves that were important members of the House Stark family of characters in Game of Thrones, was found uniquely in North America until its extinction in the late...more
Cancer, the "Emperor of All Maladies" as it has been termed, has been studied for millennia. President Nixon's "War on Cancer" resulted in slow but steady progress, aided by the biotechnology revolution, the development of...more
The Fountain of Youth -- an enduring aspiration, particularly as the ravages of age reduce human faculties prior to leading inexorably to death. Reduction in sight is the human faculty that can have the greatest effect on...more
Over the past decade, genetic archeology has revealed two branches of the human family tree, one known since the 19th Century (the Neanderthals) and the other more recently discovered (the Denisovans, an Asian relative of the...more
Svante Pääbo created the science of detecting Neanderthal DNA in archeological samples (and living humans) almost single-handedly (see Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes). So it will come as little surprise to many...more
California’s “Genetic Information Privacy Act” (SB 980), vetoed on September 25, 2020 by Governor Gavin Newsom, would have established obligations for direct-to-consumer (“DTC”) genetic testing companies and others that...more
Last week the California legislature passed an important first step in protecting the American public from itself. The Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA) helps fill a gap in U.S. healthcare privacy that most people don’t...more
Turns Out, Early Humans Not the Cause of Woolly Rhinoceros Extinction - Paleogenomics (the use of genetic analysis of DNA contained in ancient remains) has developed rapidly since Svante Pääbo first showed that DNA could...more
Genetic instability has long been recognized as a hallmark of oncogenesis and tumor progression. The phenomenon was first identified cytogenetically, most famously by the Philadelphia chromosome in chronic myelogenous...more
Measured by global dispersal alone, the common house mouse (Mus musculus ssp.) is the most successful invasive mammalian species. Perhaps surprisingly, the origin and history of this dispersal in the Western world has not be...more