The open source/open access movement is moving forward
in biotechnology research. Here's an interesting
development that was reported recently in Nature.
A team of researchers in Australia and Europe has
invented a new method of transfering genes to plants
using bacteria outside the genus Agrobacterium, which
until now has had a patent lock on gene transfer in
plant biotechnology. Their paper appears in the Feb.
10 issue of Nature. The researchers are affiliated
with CAMBIA, a research center of Charles Sturt Univ.
in Canberra and a founding member of the BIOS
initiative. According to the CAMBIA web site,
"BIOS (Biological Innovation for Open Society) is
developing new means for cooperative invention,
improvement and delivery of biological technologies."
The web site includes the "world's largest free
full-text searchable patent database." (1.5 million
life science patents from the U.S., Australian and
European-based patent databases.)
CAMBIA
http://www.cambia.org/
Biological Innovation for Open Society
http://www.bios.net/daisy/bios/15
"Gene Transfer to plants by diverse species of
bacteria"
Wim Broothaerts, et al., Nature 433, Feb. 10, 2005,
629-633
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v433/n7026/abs/nature03309_fs.html
-Mike White
Kingston, Ontario
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Received on Fri Feb 25 2005 - 03:19:12
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