Is the CRISPR Treat Worth Two Licenses?

Abstract

Rivalries between universities extend beyond athletic fields.  UC-Berkeley scientists are in a full-fledged legal brawl with Harvard and MIT researchers over CRISPR technology. CRISPR technology allows very specific gene targeting and editing; it is even being used to image live cells.  The commercial potential associated with the CRISPR technology fuels the dispute over who invented the CRISPR technology and which group developed the CRISPR techniques and tools that work in eukaryotic cells, cells that perhaps have the most financial significance.  The international legal drama is see-sawing back and forth between UC-Berkeley and the Broad Institute which controls Harvard and MIT’s CRISPR technologies. Meanwhile life sciences companies seek an economical path to using CRISPR techniques.

Keywords: UC-Berkely, CRISPR, Harvard, MIT, technology, techniques, rivalries, treat worth