The author also reported the news last month. At that time, I also wondered why Zhang Feng, the pioneer of CRISPR/Cas9 technology, did not win the prize. Many readers have the same question.
From April 65438 to May this year, Yuanda Research Institute successfully applied for the patent of CRISPR-Cas9 technology. Dr. Zhang Feng was the inventor of this patent, which enabled him and his research institute to control almost all important commercial uses related to CRISPR.
Then the question is coming! Why did CRISPR's patents and scientific breakthrough awards fall into different hands?
CRISPR-Cas9 Technology Patent Application Form
The focus of debate now is who invented what when? This involves three large financing startups, six universities and thousands of pages of legal documents. One of them is Swiss drug research and development company CRISPR Therapeutics, co-founded by Emmanuelle Charpentier. Rodger Novak, the current CEO of CRISPR Therapeutics, said: "Intellectual property is quite complicated in this field, and everyone knows that it is full of contradictions."
Scientists believe that CRISPR may be the most important genetic engineering technology since the beginning of the biotechnology era in the 1970s. CRISPR system has the dual functions of searching and replacing DNA, which enables scientists to easily change the function of DNA by replacing bases. In the past few months, scientists have confirmed that CRISPR can treat muscular atrophy and rare liver diseases in mice, and make human cells immune to HIV and other amazing functions.
Although there are no drugs related to CRISPR at present, if CRISPR is as powerful as scientists predict, its commercial control will be worth one billion dollars. Patent control is very important for startups. At present, several companies related to CRISPR have quickly raised more than 80 million US dollars, aiming to make CRISPR cure devastating diseases as soon as possible. These companies expect to start clinical trials in less than three years.
Who should spend CRISPR's patent?
Zhang Feng
Zhang Feng founded Editas Medicine with $43 million in venture capital. It is worth mentioning that Editas Medicine does not completely occupy CRISPR technology. This is because Jennifer Doudna, a structural biologist at the University of California who won one of the life science breakthrough awards, is also one of the co-founders of Editas Medicine. After Zhang Feng successfully applied for a patent, she broke off the relationship with the company and licensed her intellectual property (patent pending) to Intellia Therapeutics, a start-up company that was announced only last month.
To make things more complicated, another winner, Emmanuelle Charpentier, sold her rights in the same patent to CRISPR Therapeutics.
In an e-mail interview, Jennifer Doudna said that she was no longer involved in Editas Medicine. But she refused to answer more questions about patents.
Few researchers are willing to take part in this patent war because they are afraid that anything they say will be used against them by the patentee in the future. Emmanuelle Charpentier said: "The appearance of CRISPR has brought a lot of excitement, but it has also brought a lot of pressure. What should we continue to do and what kind of company should we build? It is very confusing for insiders, and it is definitely more confusing for outsiders. "
For academic laboratories, they are not waiting for the patent dispute to be resolved as soon as possible. On the contrary, they are competing to organize a strong team to further improve the gene editing technology. For example, at Harvard Medical School, George Mcdonaldchurch, a top genomics expert, has a team of 30 people.
Zhang Feng said: "With the continuous emergence of new research results, the importance of any patent has become increasingly unclear. Although patents are very important, I really don't value patents. The ultimate form of any technology is to change people's lives. "
What is the discovery process of CRISPR/Cas?
CRISPR/Cas is a natural immune system existing in most bacteria and archaea, which can be used to fight against invading viruses and foreign DNA. In 20 12, a key article published by a research team led by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier revealed how the natural immune system became an editing tool. At least, any DNA strand can be cut in a test tube.
Next, scientists need to prove whether this magical editing tool can be applied to the genome of human cells. 20 13, 13 10, Zhang Feng of George Mcdonaldchurch Laboratory of Harvard University and Broder Institute published articles confirming that the answer to the above questions is yes. A few weeks later, Jennifer Dudner published her own results.
Later, scientists realized that CRISPR might become a very flexible tool to rewrite DNA and be used to treat a variety of genetic diseases, such as hemophilia, rare metabolic diseases and even neurodegenerative diseases.
Venture capital group soon began to gather the key scientists behind CRISPR, hold patents and set up companies. Emmanuelle Charpentier founded CRISPR Therapeutics in Europe. Jennifer Dudner and Zhang Feng co-founded Editas Medicine. After leaving Editas Medicine, she now started a small company, Caribou Biosciences.