October 22, 2015

NYT publishes Anna Laakmann’s opinion on data sharing of genomic information

NYT publishes Anna Laakmann’s opinion on data sharing of genomic information

The New York Times opinion section “Room for Debate” contacted Lewis & Clark Law Professor Anna Laakmann for her comments on genomic information data sharing. Here’s an excerpt from the opinion published on Oct 22, 2015:

“In their quest to understand the mysteries of the human genome, medical researchers rely on increasingly sophisticated tools for generating, storing and manipulating vast amounts of data. We need a legal framework that encourages them to share this data, so other researchers can build upon it, too.

Scientific and medical patents encourage this kind of information sharing. Researchers get commercial rights to their discoveries in exchange for making their knowledge publicly available. But recent Supreme Court rulings have cast doubt on the patentability of genomic discoveries, and may have inadvertently undermined socially productive data sharing efforts.”

Read the full opinion here.