There's a new wrinkle in the argument over patenting life: can you patent synthetic life?
Scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute have applied for a U.S. patent on a minimal bacterial genome that they built themselves. According to the patent application, it's "a minimal set of protein-coding genes which provides the information required for replication of a free-living organism in a rich bacterial culture medium." The ETC group sent out a press release this morning which I have to say comes off as terribly alarmist using terms like "Microbesoft," evoking Dolly the cloned sheep and naming the organism Synthia.
The ETA group also says in April the institute filed an international patent application at the World Intellectual Property organization. Craig Venter is not named in the patent, which was filed on October 12, 2006.
(the image is a similar tiny genome made of 271 genes)
In an email, ETC group researcher Jim Thomas wrote:
We think these monopoly claims signal the start of a high-stakes commercial race to synthesize and privatize synthetic life forms. And
Venter's company is positioning itself to become the ‘Microbesoft’ of synthetic biology. Before these claims go forward, society must consider their far-reaching social, ethical and environmental impacts, and have an informed debate about whether they are socially acceptable or desirable.
Patent experts that we've consulted believe that the applicants had probably not achieved a fully functioning organism -- at least not at the time of the patent claim. But it has been about 8 months since they filed the patent. We don't know how imminent the first synthetic species really is -- but we do know that the Venter Institute has filed for exclusive monopoly on a set of essential genes and a synthetic "free-living organism that can grow and replicate" that is made using those genes. We believe this organism, if indeed Venter is succesful in creating it (maybe he already has?) is a much bigger deal than Dolly the cloned sheep ten years ago so we have given this syn organism a name too - Synthia.
