An irreverent guide to winners and losers in the CRISPR patent fight
As you’ve likely heard if you work in the biosciences, the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT just won a big patent battle over the revolutionary gene editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9. The ruling awards patents for using the technique in mammalian cells — including to develop new therapies for disease —to the Broad and its acclaimed researcher Feng Zhang.
That’s grim news for their cross-country rival, the University of California, where equally acclaimed biochemist Jennifer Doudna first figured out how to use CRISPR to edit DNA (but not in live cells).
The biggest winner of the day is clearly the Broad Institute, which “landed a knockout punch” with Wednesday’s ruling, according to Jacob Sherkow of New York Law School.
But there are other winners — and losers. Here’s our (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) scorecard…
