PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Time for tech transfer law to change? U-M doctor looks at history of Bayh-Dole and says yes

Supreme Court ruling on gene patenting, and modern risks raised by industry/academic interaction, signal need for change

2013-08-30
(Press-News.org) ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The law that has helped medical discoveries make the leap from university labs to the marketplace for more than 30 years needs revising, in part to ensure the American people benefit from science their tax dollars have paid for, says a University of Michigan Medical School physician and medical historian.

In a new commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine, Howard Markel, M.D., Ph.D., director of the U-M Center for the History of Medicine, looks at the fluke-ridden history of how the law known as Bayh-Dole Technology Transfer Act was passed in 1980. The law made it much easier for research findings made by academics to be patented, licensed by companies and commercialized.

The haphazard history of Bayh-Dole, and the issues and risks that have arisen since it was passed, suggest it is time to re-examine and revise the law, says Markel.

The need for more modern guidance of the process known as technology transfer, and the conduct of ethical and socially just partnerships between academia and industry, was reflected in the recent unanimous Supreme Court ruling that barred the patenting of human genes – though allowed other patents of gene-related discoveries, Markel says.

He traces the history of the Bayh-Dole law, which allows universities and other institutions that receive federal research dollars to grant exclusive licenses to companies that wish to commercialize discoveries made by academic researchers.

Initially conceived as a way to help the United States economy at a time when industry was struggling to keep up with German and Japanese innovation, the proposal only became law because of last-minute wrangling during the final days of a lame-duck Congressional and presidential term.

"The Bayh-Dole Act has had such far-reaching influence in both academia and American society, but it certainly is not a law that should be set in stone," says Markel. "The very passage of the act was based on a series of quirky, historically improbable events, and random and entropic processes. There have been many great things and grave problems that have emerged since the passage of Bayh-Dole, but because the landscape of biotechnologies in universities and industry has evolved so far, so fast, it's time to have a rational, serious dialogue about revising it to reduce the risks the law has created."

Markel notes that partnerships between industry and academia are important, and is not calling for a separation of the two spheres.

Rather, he feels that more consideration needs to the ethics of industry/academic interaction, the need for continued support of basic research, scientific data sharing, and the payback for American taxpayers whose dollars support research before commercialization.

"We're all paying for these discoveries, which can lead to profits for the individual researchers, their institution and the company that commercializes the idea," he says. "But the one investor that can be left out of the profit equation is the American taxpayer."

###

Reference: http://www.nejm.org/media/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1306553

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Virtual surgical planning aids in complex facial reconstructions

2013-08-30
Philadelphia, Pa. (August 29, 2013) – Virtual surgical planning technologies give surgeons a powerful new tool for their most challenging facial reconstruction cases, reports a paper in the September issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). "Use of virtual surgical planning allows for complex maxillofacial reconstruction with multiple simultaneous free flaps to be preformed reliably and successfully," according to the study by Dr. Adam Saad of Louisiana State University Health Sciences ...

Assay shown to be effective in measuring levels of mutant huntingtin protein

2013-08-30
An assay designed to measure normal and abnormal forms of the huntingtin protein – the mutated form of which causes Huntington's disease (HD) – was successful in detecting levels of the mutant protein in a large multicenter study of individuals at risk for the devastating neurological disorder. The report from a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators – which will appear in the Sept. 24 issue of Neurology and has been released online – also found changes in levels of the mutated protein that might predict when symptoms will appear. "Our validation ...

Study identifies better blood glucose monitor for burn care

2013-08-30
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Glucose monitoring systems with an autocorrect feature that can detect red blood cells (hematocrit), vitamin C and other common interferents in burn patients' blood are better for monitoring care, a pilot study conducted by UC Davis researchers at the School of Medicine and College of Engineering has found. The study was published in the Journal of Burn Care Research. Burn patients are at risk for high blood glucose levels, or hyperglycemia, due to the body's stress response. Intensive insulin therapy, which is commonly used to keep glucose under ...

Alcohol breaks brain connections needed to process social cues

2013-08-30
Alcohol intoxication reduces communication between two areas of the brain that work together to properly interpret and respond to social signals, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. Their results were published in the September issue of Psychopharmacology. Previous research has shown that alcohol suppresses activity in the amygdala, the area of the brain responsible for perceiving social cues such as facial expressions. "Because emotional processing involves both the amygdala and areas of the brain located in the prefrontal ...

UCSB study examines heavy metal pollutants in fish at oil platforms and natural sites

2013-08-30
A recent study by UC Santa Barbara scientists analyzed whole-body fish samples taken from oil-and-gas production platforms and natural sites for heavy metal pollutants. The results showed all but four elements were relatively consistent at both types of location. The findings were published in the Bulletin of Marine Science. The research, led by fish expert Milton S. Love, a research biologist with UCSB's Marine Science Institute, entailed collecting a total of 196 fish –– 18 kelp bass (Paralabrax clathratus), 80 kelp rockfish (Sebastes atrovirens), and 98 Pacific sanddab ...

Protein predicts breast cancer prognosis

2013-08-30
Researchers have identified a protein that they believe may help predict breast cancer prognosis, potentially relieving thousands of women at low risk from having to undergo painful, oft-debilitating therapies, while insuring the most successful treatments for those at high risk. The research was published ahead of print in the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology. Using bioinformatics techniques, the authors showed that the levels of expression of some 1,200 genes that are directly controlled by the enzyme, EZH2, correlates with the aggressiveness of breast cancer ...

Hydrogen fuel from sunlight

2013-08-30
In the search for clean, green sustainable energy sources to meet human needs for generations to come, perhaps no technology matches the ultimate potential of artificial photosynthesis. Bionic leaves that could produce energy-dense fuels from nothing more than sunlight, water and atmosphere-warming carbon dioxide, with no byproducts other than oxygen, represent an ideal alternative to fossil fuels but also pose numerous scientific challenges. A major step toward meeting at least one of these challenges has been achieved by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy ...

Mutations in a gene that impacts immune function increase susceptibility to prostate cancer

2013-08-30
SEATTLE – A team of researchers led by Janet Stanford, Ph.D., of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has discovered that mutations in the gene BTNL2, which encodes a protein involved in regulating T-cell proliferation and cytokine production – both of which impact immune function – increase the risk of developing prostate cancer. The findings, by Stanford and colleagues from the University of Washington Genome Sciences Department and the National Human Genome Research Institute, are online ahead of the print issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. A ...

Toward an early diagnostic tool for Alzheimer's disease

2013-08-30
This news release is available in French. Despite all the research done on Alzheimer's, there is still no early diagnostic tool for the disease. By looking at the brain wave components of individuals with the disease, Professor Tiago H. Falk of INRS's Centre Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications has identified a promising avenue of research that may not only help diagnose the disease, but also assess its severity. This non-invasive, objective method is the subject of an article in the journal PLOS ONE. Patients with Alzheimer's disease currently undergo neuropsychological ...

New nanoparticles make solar cells cheaper to manufacture

2013-08-30
University of Alberta researchers have found that abundant materials in the Earth's crust can be used to make inexpensive and easily manufactured nanoparticle-based solar cells. The U of A discovery, several years in the making, is an important step forward in making solar power more accessible to parts of the world that are off the traditional electricity grid or face high power costs, such as the Canadian North, said researcher Jillian Buriak, a chemistry professor and senior research officer of the National Institute for Nanotechnology, based on the U of A campus. Buriak ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

U.S. uterine cancer incidence and mortality rates expected to significantly increase by 2050

Public take the lead in discovery of new exploding star

What are they vaping? Study reveals alarming surge in adolescent vaping of THC, CBD, and synthetic cannabinoids

ECMWF - delivering forecasts over 10 times faster and cutting energy usage by 1000

Brazilian neuroscientist reveals how viral infections transform the brain through microscopic detective work

Turning social fragmentation into action through discovering relatedness

Cheese may really be giving you nightmares, scientists find

Study reveals most common medical emergencies in schools

Breathable yet protective: Next-gen medical textiles with micro/nano networks

Frequency-engineered MXene supercapacitors enable efficient pulse charging in TENG–SC hybrid systems

Developed an AI-based classification system for facial pigmented lesions

Achieving 20% efficiency in halogen-free organic solar cells via isomeric additive-mediated sequential processing

New book Terraglossia reclaims language, Country and culture

The most effective diabetes drugs don't reach enough patients yet

Breast cancer risk in younger women may be influenced by hormone therapy

Strategies for staying smoke-free after rehab

Commentary questions the potential benefit of levothyroxine treatment of mild hypothyroidism during pregnancy

Study projects over 14 million preventable deaths by 2030 if USAID defunding continues

New study reveals 33% gap in transplant access for UK’s poorest children

Dysregulated epigenetic memory in early embryos offers new clues to the inheritance of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

IVF and IUI pregnancy rates remain stable across Europe, despite an increasing uptake of single embryo transfer

It takes a village: Chimpanzee babies do better when their moms have social connections

From lab to market: how renewable polymers could transform medicine

Striking increase in obesity observed among youth between 2011 and 2023

No evidence that medications trigger microscopic colitis in older adults

NYUAD researchers find link between brain growth and mental health disorders

Aging-related inflammation is not universal across human populations, new study finds

University of Oregon to create national children’s mental health center with $11 million federal grant

Rare achievement: UTA undergrad publishes research

Fact or fiction? The ADHD info dilemma

[Press-News.org] Time for tech transfer law to change? U-M doctor looks at history of Bayh-Dole and says yes
Supreme Court ruling on gene patenting, and modern risks raised by industry/academic interaction, signal need for change