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Published online 22 June 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news070618-17
Column
The patent threat to designer biology
Behind scare stories of building synthetic life lies the issue of who owns the biological parts.
"For the first time, God has competition", claimed the Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC Group) two weeks ago. With this catchy headline, it aimed to raise the alarm about a patent on "the world's first-ever human-made species", a bacterium allegedly created "with synthetic DNA" in the laboratories of the Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland.
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