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June 9, 2006

Strange But True!

Q. Maybe you think you own the 24,000 genes passed along to you by your parents in creation of your body and mind. Well, think again.

A. Actually, more than 4,000 of the 24,000 human genes stored in the National Center for Biotechnology Information database are tagged with at least one patent, as reported by “Science” magazine. Incyte Corp. of Wilmington, Del., alone owns nearly 10 percent of all human genes, says “Scientific American.” But how can my genes be patented? people will ask. And what happens to cancer research when half of all known cancer genes are patented?


 
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