WILL genomics pioneer Craig Venter be the next Bill Gates, enjoying a Microsoft-like grip on a future industry based on synthetic forms of life? That was the claim of an advocacy group concerned about the social implications of technologies earlier this year, after Venter’s institute applied for a patent on a synthetic “minimal genome” (New Scientist, 16 June, p 13).
Now the Ottawa-based ETC Group is raising the alarm again. In the past few weeks, two patent applications by scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute were published. These cover methods for making synthetic genomes and for inserting whole…
