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March 11, 2008

Wisconsin Alumni Foundation Owns Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Well, all of the patents over ESCR held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation have been upheld by the Patent Office. From the story:

The rulings mean the foundation will continue to control primary
intellectual property rights to embryonic stem cell research in the United States. If that research leads to successful medical products or procedures before the patents expire in 2015, the school could win royalties.

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and the Public Patent Foundation, which asked the patent office to throw out the patents in 2006, argued that their enforcement slowed U.S. stem cell research and drove some investment overseas.

So what is really going on here is a good old fashioned fight among capitalists over who gets to eat the biggest piece of the pie, as I pointed out here at SHS last year.

Typique.

Posted by Wesley J. Smith
Posted in Stem Cell Research
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Would you deposit to ‘biobank’?

Wanted: Your genes.

Hoping to link illnesses to genetics and lifestyle, the federal government is exploring the possibility of recruiting a half-million Americans to contribute their DNA and health information to an ambitious national “biobank.” (Mercury News)

Posted by Bioethics Pundit
Posted in Genetics, News
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US Upholds 2 More Stem Cell Patents

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has upheld a second and a third University of Wisconsin-Madison patent covering embryonic stem cell research at the school. (Washington Post)

Posted by Bioethics Pundit
Posted in News, Stem Cell Research
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The Aging Brain Helped By Injection Of Human Umbilical Cord Blood

When human umbilical cord blood cells (UCBC) were injected into aged laboratory animals, researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) found improvements in the microenvironment of the hippocampus region of the animals’ brains and a subsequent rejuvenation of neural stem/progenitor cells. (Medical News Today)

Posted by Bioethics Pundit
Posted in Neuroethics, News, Stem Cell Research, i
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