The wooly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) is an iconic animal, like the saber tooth tiger or dire wolf, from a time in human history when our position at the top of the global food chain was decidedly not assured (and being...more
Senior Party Toolgen and Junior Parties The Broad Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University (collectively, "Broad") in Interference No. 106,126 and University of California/Berkeley, the...more
Senior Party Toolgen and Junior Parties The Broad Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University (collectively, "Broad") in Interference No. 106,126 and University of California/Berkeley, the...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board has declared interferences individually between Toolgen as Senior Party and as Junior Party the parties in the pending interference, Broad Institute, Harvard...more
The COVID-19 pandemic has spread throughout the globe, infecting more than 90 million people and causing almost two million deaths (see "Tracking coronavirus' global spread"). SARS-CoV-2 infection is the cause of the...more
The dire wolf (Canis dirus), prototype of the various wolves that were important members of the House Stark family of characters in Game of Thrones, was found uniquely in North America until its extinction in the late...more
The COVID-19 pandemic has spread throughout the globe, infecting more than 90 million people and causing almost two million deaths (see "Tracking coronavirus’ global spread"). SARS-CoV-2 infection is the cause of the COVID-19...more
Motion practice continues in Interference No. 106,115 between Senior Party The Broad Institute, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (collectively, "Broad") and Junior Party the University of...more
Cancer, the "Emperor of All Maladies" as it has been termed, has been studied for millennia. President Nixon's "War on Cancer" resulted in slow but steady progress, aided by the biotechnology revolution, the development of...more
In the latest development in Interference No. 106,115 between Senior Party The Broad Institute, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (collectively, "Broad") and Junior Party The University of...more
The Fountain of Youth -- an enduring aspiration, particularly as the ravages of age reduce human faculties prior to leading inexorably to death. Reduction in sight is the human faculty that can have the greatest effect on...more
Over the past decade, genetic archeology has revealed two branches of the human family tree, one known since the 19th Century (the Neanderthals) and the other more recently discovered (the Denisovans, an Asian relative of the...more
Cancer of the appendix is a very rare form of cancer, having an incidence of 0.12 per 1,000,000 person-years (Siegel et al., 2020, Cancer statistics 2020 70:7-30). Incidence is rising (by 232% from 2000-2016 in the U.S.)...more
It has long been understood that claim construction can, and frequently is, dispositive in patent litigation. This truism was the basis for the Federal Circuit affirming the District Court's decision against a generic drug...more
Almost three weeks ago, on October 31st, Junior Party the University of California/Berkeley, the University of Vienna, and Emmanuelle Charpentier (collectively, "CVC") filed its priority motion in Interference No. 106,115,...more
Svante Pääbo created the science of detecting Neanderthal DNA in archeological samples (and living humans) almost single-handedly (see Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes). So it will come as little surprise to many...more
Since the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) rendered its decisions on Motions in Interference No. 106,115, Senior Party The Broad Institute, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (collectively,...more
Perception by the five human senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch) varies significantly between individuals and populations. Some use these differences to their advantage, such as sommeliers capable of detecting...more
There are an estimated 219 million cases of malaria per year, leading to more than 400,000 deaths annually according to the World Health Organization. Hemocytes (insect white blood cells) comprise the mosquito immune system...more
Despite the challenges of addressing a previously unknown virus, development of an effective vaccine, soon, is a distinct possibility (see "Multiple Candidate Coronavirus Vaccines Being Developed According to WHO"). But as...more
In the face of the economic and social consequences of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic (COVID-19) and the difficulties attendant in behavioral modifications that could slow progress...more
The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the most severe since the 1918 influenza pandemic (colloquially known as the Spanish Flu; see, J. Barry, The Great Influenza: The Story of...more
Turns Out, Early Humans Not the Cause of Woolly Rhinoceros Extinction -
Paleogenomics (the use of genetic analysis of DNA contained in ancient remains) has developed rapidly since Svante Pääbo first showed that DNA could...more
Chemotherapeutic drug resistance is one reason cancer remains an unsolved clinical problem despite the efforts ever since President Nixon declared his "War on Cancer" in 1971. Cancer cells, due in part to the genetic...more
Federal Circuit Hands Down Modified Opinion in Illumina, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc.
Earlier this year, the Federal Circuit (somewhat surprisingly) found claims of two Sequenom patents directed to methods for...more
8/6/2020
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