James Thomson is known as the first scientist to successfully isolate human embryonic stem cells (hESC) at the University of Wisconsin back in 1998. Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) holds the patent to this landmark invention along with two others, boasting they own the rights to all hESCs in the U.S. However, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a preliminary decision stating that they may throw out the patents, since the science is not new and was based on previous work. WARF, who charged hundreds of thousands of dollars for the use of the patented stem cells, challenged the decision.
Jeanne Loring, director of hESC research at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in California said, "The patents are impeding our research. They're more important than what's going on in the [U.S.] Senate right now." She said, "It is making scientists go overseas to do this sort of research. It isn't the funding that's sending us overseas. It's the patent issues."
Michigan, a hub of biotech research, continues to discover new breakthrough therapies, using ethical forms of stem cells, while operating within the law.
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