HKazazianMD

I don't think it would change the number of treatments being created. Treatments depend upon finding a use for the gene sequence and uses are patentable. What the court ruled was that the natural gene in our bodies is not patentable until you find a use or a process.

Yes, I had dinner with Mark Skolnick, the founder of Myriad, in New York in late 1998, and he told me after dinner that Myriad would be sending us the "stop" letter. At least, he paid for the dinner.

Question one: Cancer is not one disease, but perhaps hundreds of different diseases. Major treatments are coming for a few cancers all the time based on biomedical research findings. I think that most cancers will be effectively treatable via new drugs and other treatments over the next 20 years.

Question two: A favorite scientific moment was when I first learned about PCR, which you've probably heard about on courtroom or detective TV dramas. It's used for DNA analysis to identify suspects in crimes. It was Oct. 1986 and it was while my wife and I were attending Parent's Weekend at Stanford. I was consulting for Cetus Corp. and walked into my client's (Henry Erlich) office, and he said look at this result. It was really amazing! You could actually amplify a segment of DNA more than one-million times.

I don't think that the ruling that cDNA is patentable will have is a major effect. Companies are still going to have to come up with a use for their cDNA. By the way, it's intereting to note that cDNA makes up about 1 % of our natural DNA. The Court missed the boat on this, in my opinion. cDNA occurs like this. The gene is copied into RNA with introns (segments that won't be used) and are later taken out. The RNA is then copied back into DNA which is called cDNA and that DNA is put back into the genome (our chromosomal DNA). In fact, this natural process is a subject of my research in the lab. Question two: Not difficult in the lab to create the cDNA. It takes the isolation of the RNA and an inexpensive enzyme called reverse transcriptase. Yes, it's standard procedure for about 25 years. No really important step. Question three: Without going into detail here, I don't think the cDNA claims still grant Myriad a monopoly.

I didn't know I wanted to go into medicine, but my family thought I was cut out for the profession. decided on medicine when I entered college. One person who had a big influence on me thought I would probably be a scientist, so I've done both. I got interested in human genetics during my last year in medical lschool upon doing a seminar course with Barton Childs, the father of pediatric genetics, at Hopkins. I've been at Hopkins since medical school, except for 16 years at Penn, so I guess you'd say that it's in my blood. It' s a great place to work, very collegial and friendly.