Polygenic testing startups offer consumers the chance of a “superbaby” by screening for genetic disorders and allowing parents to select certain embryos for fertilization; however, the ethics and the science of this practice are very controversial. Speaking to The San Francisco Standard, Professor Jacob Sherkow added his expertise on the issue. “[These companies] claim to […]
Professor Jacob Sherkow recently had the chance to present his research, “A Sociotechnical Approach to Genomic Data Security: A Comparative Legal Analysis,” to the Law, Medicine and Life Sciences group at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law. In addition to his position at the College of Law, where he serves as director of the […]
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in May that the key patents on what many consider the defining biotechnology invention of the 21st century should be reconsidered. Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier shared a 2020 Nobel Prize for developing the versatile gene-editing system CRISPR; however, the key patent rights were granted Feng Zhang […]
Colossal Biosciences is making headlines with its bold initiative to bring back the woolly mammoth, but the venture raises significant ethical and legal questions. Professor Jacob Sherkow is quoted in a new article from the MIT Technology Review about the complexities surrounding intellectual property in de-extinction efforts. He notes that while natural animals cannot be […]
A drug label is a vital piece of information in patent cases, but a series of recent decisions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit have changed how the court assesses claims. In a forthcoming article in the Stanford Law Review, Professor Jacob Sherkow calls this new confusion over labels “infringement by […]
Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. was a cultural phenomenon when the Supreme Court’s ruling was issued, with the outcome taking a place on the front-page of most major newspapers in the United States. Reflecting more than 10 years on from the decision, however, Professor Jacob Sherkow tells the Carl R. Woese Institute […]
Self-treatment is a risky and controversial choice, as detailed in a new Nature article about a cancer researcher who decided to do research and treat her own breast cancer. In the article, Professor Jacob Sherkow is quoted about the dangers of publishing this kind of work; his comments are also included in a story for […]
In September, Professor Jacob Sherkow delivered a presentation on the legal aspects of DNA sequencing cases to the New York Intellectual Property Law Association. His presentation, titled “Trade Secrets Committee Meeting: Litigating DNA Trade Secrecy,” covered whether DNA sequences are protectable by trade secrecy and if recent advances in DNA sequencing technology might destroy trade […]
A decade on from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., Professor Jacob Sherkow argues that what seemed like a political and cultural phenomenon has had a much narrower impact. Writing as the first author in a new paper published in Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, […]
The patent battle over CRISPR-Cas9 technology has gone on for longer than a decade, but continues to wind its way through the courts. The global CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing market size is expected to grow to $14.65 billion by 2032, and Professor Jacob Sherkow told BioSpace that companies seeking to license the technology may be content to […]