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DREAMing of a patent-free human genome for clinical sequencing

Nature Biotechnology volume 31, pages 884–887 (2013)Cite this article

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Can methylation be the key to challenging the interpretation of existing gene patent claims? And can a novel PCR method be used to enable the sequencing of hundreds of genes?

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Figure 1: Agilent High Sensitivity chip of Haloplex assays after 15 cycles of PCR with (blue) and without (red) 5me-dCTP used in the PCR.
Figure 2: Illumina MiSeq V2.
Figure 3: Plot of a quantitative PCR assay run on various DREAM PCR libraries and controls.
Figure 4: Depiction of natural DNA, conventional four-nucleotide PCR DNA and DREAM PCR DNA.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank C. Gunter, T. Harkins, S. Grimmond and R. McKernan for valuable editorial advice. We would like to thank E. Dimalantis for constructive discussions regarding MspJI.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kevin J. McKernan, Jessica Spangler, Yvonne Helbert, Lei Zhang and Vasisht Tadigotla are at Courtagen Life Sciences, Woburn, Massachusetts, USA.,

    Kevin J McKernan, Jessica Spangler, Yvonne Helbert, Lei Zhang & Vasisht Tadigotla

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  1. Kevin J McKernan
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  2. Jessica Spangler
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Correspondence to Kevin J McKernan.

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Competing interests

The authors are employed by Courtagen Life Sciences, which is a CLIA and CAP-certified next-generation DNA sequencing facility. The company sequences gene panels and exomes of children with mitochondrial disease, epilepsy and autism. The opinions expressed by the authors on gene patents are their own and may not reflect those of Courtagen.

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McKernan, K., Spangler, J., Helbert, Y. et al. DREAMing of a patent-free human genome for clinical sequencing. Nat Biotechnol 31, 884–887 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2703

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