GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2001-04 > 0987543542


From: Alan Savin <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Will DNA Patents Impact Genome Research?
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 21:39:02 +0000
In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.20010417132001.0079a330@mindspring.com>


Ron wrote:

>Many of the participants on this List would like to fantasize about the day
>when our own personal DNA analysis could provide us with the names,
>birthdates and social security numbers of all our ancestors. That is
>surely a fantasy, but even moderate advances from the current level of
>expertise in Y-Chromosome and mtDNA testing could be hampered by the race
>to obtain patent rights to the human genome.

As an adjunct to the above genealogists at present are concentrating on
using the junk DNA of the Y chromosome for their research. It is my
understanding that someone who I will not publicly name has sometime ago
filed a patent in respect of "our DNA" to be used in the manner that we do.

To counter this, knowing this may happen, I published also sometime ago an
article so that the idea has been aired in the public domain and also is
therefore not novel. Hopefully my action has saved the day, otherwise you
may all be paying royalties on your genealogical DNA tests.

Alan Savin



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