CAN you patent an aspect of human biology? That is the question some researchers are asking in a row over an IVF patent awarded to Stanford University.
The US patent was granted to Stanford University and , a fertility clinic in Menlo Park, California, and covers the timing of certain stages of early cell division in the embryo that predict future viability. Auxogyn is confident of being awarded a European patent, too.
of the ART Institute in Washington DC, which offers IVF to US military personnel, has called for 鈥渞esponsible reproductive specialists鈥� to protest against the patent. 鈥淩esearchers focused on embryo kinetics should ignore the time patents claimed by Stanford,鈥� he writes in the journal Reproductive BioMedicine Online ().
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鈥淧atenting software is one thing, but trying to patent cell-cycle timings is something else altogether,鈥� says Simon Fishel at the in Nottingham, UK. 鈥淭hat belongs to everybody,鈥� he says.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淚VF patent fallout鈥�