The Supreme Court is at it again today as they are hearing a case that could have extremely wide ranging impact. In the 1990s Myriad Genetics won a patent battle and was awarded an extremely broad patent due to their finding of a genetic variation in the human genome called BRCA1 and BRCA2. BRCA1 and BRCA2 have been shown to increase the probability that a woman will come down with breast cancer by over 85% so the health impact of these tests is enormous. The patent case is extremely interesting but so is another part of the work in which Myriad Genetics is involved.
© aleciccotelli – Fotolia.com
They have developed the largest databases of genetic mutations and outcomes from patients who have them. When Myriad Genetics identified a mutation, they would track patients health to see if they eventually developed cancer and if so what kinds. To get this data, Myriad would offer free testing to family members of people who tested positive to get a larger sample size.
This data enables them to categorize mutations based the probability of developing cancer and the forms of cancer they are connected to. Currently, Myriad Genetics is able to classify 97% of all genetic mutations and their impact on cancer. Until 2004, this database was public but now they no longer provide such access. As a result, many scientists who are detecting their lifetime to cancer research do not have access to this information.
A few scientists are however trying to reverse engineer it asking doctors and genetic councilors to send him anonymous reports from Myriad Genetics so they can compile the notes about the different mutations in a hope to build a public version of the database.
The case at the Supreme Court will not have an impact on the ownership and availability of the database. However, it is an interesting example of the power that vast amounts of data has in predicting outcomes (in this case health related). Going forward, data will be power and the people who invest in collecting it will be able to make fast amounts of money selling it.
Want to read more on this? Here are two interesting articles:
Patent case at the Supreme Court: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-supreme-court-should-invalidate-the-patent-on-human-dna/2013/04/05/959fdcbc-9de1-11e2-a941-a19bce7af755_story.html
Genetic Database: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/13/health/dna-project-aims-to-make-companys-data-public.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
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NYT: DNA Project Aims to Make Publi
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