4 ms·

Pivotal CRISPR patent battle won by Broad Institute

56 points by ajonnav 8y ago

sphix0r 8y ago
I'm wondering, is there a hacker news for biohacking related stuff? I have the feeling that there is a lot of progress being made in gene therapy technology these days. Having a friend who's life would be enhanced by gene therapy, I'm highly interested!
- faitswulff 8y ago
  Closest I know of is Fierce Biotech https://www.fiercebiotech.com/ https://www.fiercebiotech.com/
  - sphix0r 8y ago
    thanks a lot!
- rotexo 8y ago
  Gene therapy has had some recent successes [0], but it is worth noting that many of the ongoing and recent clinical gene therapy trials don’t necessarily involve genome editing: go to clinicaltrials.gov, search ‘gene therapy’ and get 3741 results. Search ‘CRISPR’ or ‘TALEN’ and get ~21 results. Edit: I should say that most of the gene therapy clinical trials don’t involve genome editing yet. Though it seems to me that, at least for some diseases, viral vectors that deliver DNA to cells without integrating DNA into the host cell genome (where the dna instead persists inside the cells episomally, and is maybe lost from the cells after some number of divisions) will have advantages over integrating vectors/genome editing-based approaches. That way, you don’t have to worry about the off-target effects of genome editing, and you have a treatment that doesn’t result in permanent changes to the genome. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4879992/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4879992/
- djsumdog 8y ago
  Lobste.rs is open source and you could potentially spin up an instance of it specific to some topic you're interested in. https://write.narwhal.space/ https://write.narwhal.space/ was an attempt at making an instance for writers, but it seems to have gone into disrepair.
- technobabble 8y ago
  Sadly, I don't think so. Check your local meetups. Additionally, SynBioBeta has been an ok source for recent biotech news.
kowdermeister 8y ago
What would a world with commercialized CRISPR technology look like? Will they just sit in the back and collect fees like the MP3 patent owners? Or will they spin-off and became the Google of DNA editing?
- Maxion 8y ago
  It's good to keep in mind that CRISPR is but one technique to do gene splicing, it's not the concept itself. Different ways will be discovered now that it's proven to be viable.
  - Eridrus 8y ago
    I think we've known it would be useful for a long time, we have had general editing capabilities for a long time, they have just been less precise/customizable. So I don't think a new one will be easily found.
  - rotexo 8y ago
    It is also worth noting that TALENs were implemented for genome editing [0] before CRISPR/Cas9 [1]. And that there are ongoing trials in human subjects that use TALENs for editing instead of Cas9 [2]. Though I agree with a sibling comment that we might not find another system with the same advantages as CRISPR/Cas9 (ie, only having to generate RNAs to engineer site specificity, rather than the more intensive task of generating a protein coding sequence like you do with TALENs). [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21179091 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21179091 [1] https://www.broadinstitute.org/what-broad/areas-focus/project-spotlight/crispr-timeline https://www.broadinstitute.org/what-broad/areas-focus/projec... [2] http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/new-gene-editing-treatment-might-help-treat-rare-disorder-hints-first-human-test?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2018-09-07&et_rid=414499691&et_cid=2356431 http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/new-gene-editing-trea...
- hprotagonist 8y ago
  we’re about to find out. Editas Pharmaceuticals is, i believe, the sole commercial licensee by the Broad for CRISPR/Cas-9, and they are scheduled to begin human trials for a rare form of blindness in October.
psychometry 8y ago
Sucks for UC, but I'm sure if the situations had been reversed they would've fought as hard for the patent as the Broad has.

56 points by ajonnav 8y ago

I'm wondering, is there a hacker news for biohacking related stuff? I have the feeling that there is a lot of progress being made in gene therapy technology these days. Having a friend who's life would be enhanced by gene therapy, I'm highly interested!

faitswulff 8y ago
Closest I know of is Fierce Biotech https://www.fiercebiotech.com/ https://www.fiercebiotech.com/
- sphix0r 8y ago
  thanks a lot!
rotexo 8y ago
Gene therapy has had some recent successes [0], but it is worth noting that many of the ongoing and recent clinical gene therapy trials don’t necessarily involve genome editing: go to clinicaltrials.gov, search ‘gene therapy’ and get 3741 results. Search ‘CRISPR’ or ‘TALEN’ and get ~21 results. Edit: I should say that most of the gene therapy clinical trials don’t involve genome editing yet. Though it seems to me that, at least for some diseases, viral vectors that deliver DNA to cells without integrating DNA into the host cell genome (where the dna instead persists inside the cells episomally, and is maybe lost from the cells after some number of divisions) will have advantages over integrating vectors/genome editing-based approaches. That way, you don’t have to worry about the off-target effects of genome editing, and you have a treatment that doesn’t result in permanent changes to the genome. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4879992/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4879992/
djsumdog 8y ago
Lobste.rs is open source and you could potentially spin up an instance of it specific to some topic you're interested in. https://write.narwhal.space/ https://write.narwhal.space/ was an attempt at making an instance for writers, but it seems to have gone into disrepair.
technobabble 8y ago
Sadly, I don't think so. Check your local meetups. Additionally, SynBioBeta has been an ok source for recent biotech news.

kowdermeister 8y ago

What would a world with commercialized CRISPR technology look like? Will they just sit in the back and collect fees like the MP3 patent owners? Or will they spin-off and became the Google of DNA editing?

Maxion 8y ago
It's good to keep in mind that CRISPR is but one technique to do gene splicing, it's not the concept itself. Different ways will be discovered now that it's proven to be viable.
- Eridrus 8y ago
  I think we've known it would be useful for a long time, we have had general editing capabilities for a long time, they have just been less precise/customizable. So I don't think a new one will be easily found.
- rotexo 8y ago
  It is also worth noting that TALENs were implemented for genome editing [0] before CRISPR/Cas9 [1]. And that there are ongoing trials in human subjects that use TALENs for editing instead of Cas9 [2]. Though I agree with a sibling comment that we might not find another system with the same advantages as CRISPR/Cas9 (ie, only having to generate RNAs to engineer site specificity, rather than the more intensive task of generating a protein coding sequence like you do with TALENs). [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21179091 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21179091 [1] https://www.broadinstitute.org/what-broad/areas-focus/project-spotlight/crispr-timeline https://www.broadinstitute.org/what-broad/areas-focus/projec... [2] http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/new-gene-editing-treatment-might-help-treat-rare-disorder-hints-first-human-test?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2018-09-07&et_rid=414499691&et_cid=2356431 http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/new-gene-editing-trea...
hprotagonist 8y ago
we’re about to find out. Editas Pharmaceuticals is, i believe, the sole commercial licensee by the Broad for CRISPR/Cas-9, and they are scheduled to begin human trials for a rare form of blindness in October.

psychometry 8y ago

Sucks for UC, but I'm sure if the situations had been reversed they would've fought as hard for the patent as the Broad has.