Radio Programs | General Resources | Genes & Food | Patenting DNA

Whenever there's valuable information in any field, people will try to own it and sell it. Genetics is no exception — ask anyone in the biotechnology industry. Ever wondered about those perfect winter tomatoes or that Bovine Growth Hormone? Get in here and check out Genes and Food to learn how genetic technology is making its way onto your dinner menu.

Produce isn't the only commodity affected by genetics. Individuals and companies are starting to patent human DNA sequences — the same information you're carrying around in each of your cells. Are they trade secrets or your secrets? Find out more about the controversy in Patenting DNA.

If you're interested in the resources here in The DNA Marketplace, you might also want to check out these categories: Applied Ecology, Genetic Medicine, Stem Cells, Gene Testing, Ethics, and Cloning.

Last updated: March 3, 2005

Radio Programs

• Genetics of Aging & Longevity - Search for the Fountain of Youth (first distributed in November 2001)
  
  
• Genetics of Infectious Disease - Planet of the Bugs: The Never-Ending Tale (first distributed in November 2001)
  
  
• Genetics & Biotechnology - DNA in the Marketplace (first distributed in November 1998)
  
  
• Plants, Animals & Transgenics - A Tomato By Any Other Name (first distributed in November 1998)
  
  
• DNA & Evolution - Where Did We Come From? Where Did We Go? (first distributed in November 1998)
  
  
• Genetic Medicine - Prescription for Conflict (first distributed in November 2001)
  
  
• Prenatal Genetic Testing - Do You Really Want to Know Your Baby's Future? (first distributed in November 1998)
  
  
• Predictive Genetic Testing - Do You Really Want to Know Your Future? (first distributed in November 1998)

• About Biotech. Access Excellence
  
  Want to learn what biomining is? Ever heard of Herman the Bull? Head over to this educational site run by the National Health Museum (and originally created by biotech giant Genentech), and find out different ways that companies are applying genetic technology to everything from livestock to orchids. Along with information on careers in biotech, you can find articles on bioethics and a good section on the history of biotechnology from 6000 BC to today.
  
  
• Consumer's Union
  
  This site has a whole series of articles and opinion pieces about food biotechnology, bovine growth hormone and risk assessment, including their comments for regulatory proceedings.
  
  
• Biotechnology Industry Organization
  
  A site constructed by a biotechnology industry lobbying group that includes profiles of member companies and useful summaries of industry information such as recent drug approvals and legislative efforts.
  
  
• Genetically Modified Organisms. European Union
  
  The European Union website includes a survey of EC sponsored research on the safety of genetically modified organisms. Topics include: food, fish, vaccines, bioremediation, plants.
  
  
• DNA Microarray Methodology Flash Animation
  
  The DNA Microarray, or "genome chip," is one of the technologies that has made genomics a lot easier to do for academic and industry researchers alike. Genome chips make it simple to find out which genes are active in a cell at any given time. This entertaining animation shows how.
  
  
• Who Owns Life? Bioethics.net
  
  Bioethicists weigh in on this question, in the American Journal of Bioethics online.
  
  
• National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
  
  A government website with links to lots of gene sequence databases, tutorials, online archives of the NCBI newsletter and more.
  
  
• Biotechnology Industry Report. Ernst & Young LLP
  
  This accounting and management company keeps careful track of trends in the biotechnology industry. Read up on companies, products, policies and financial events of the past year in last year's report.

Book Chapters

• "Artificiality and Enlightenment: From Sociobiology to Biosociality" by Paul Rabinow, in Essays in the Anthropology of Reason. Princeton University Press, 1996
  
  
• The Biotech Century by Jeremy Rifkin. Putnam, 1998
  
  Rifkin's prophetic jeremiad on the biological and cultural dangers of the new genetic technologies.
  
  
• Biotechnology Unzipped: Promises and Realities by Eric Grace. National Academy Press, 1998
  
  
• The Golden Helix: Inside Biotech Ventures by Arthur Kornberg. University Science Books, 1996
  
  The Nobel Laureate contemplates his personal odyssey from the white tower of academe to the boardrooms of commercial biotech companies.
  
  
• The Human Body Shop: The Engineering and Marketing of Life by Andrew Kimbrell. Second Edition, Regnery, 1998
  
  In his accessible style, Kimbrell offers a somewhat "green" presentation of the limits, potentials, and dangers of genetic engineering.
  
  
• Improving Nature? The Science and Ethics of Genetic Engineering by Michael J. Reiss and Roger Straughan. Cambridge University Press, 1996
  
  
• The Law, Business and Regulation of Biotechnology by Michael J. Malinowski. Aspen Law and Business/Panel, 1999
  
  This multi-volume work covers every aspect of the law, business and regulatory aspects of biotechnology, from laboratory to marketplace.
  
  
• Making PCR: A Story of Biotechnology by Paul Rabinow. University of Chicago Press, 1997
  
  An anthropologist's ethnographic account of the invention of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the technology which vastly increased the scientific and commercial potential of modern genetics.
  
  
• Modest-Witness, Second-Millennium: FemaleMan meets OncoMouse: Feminism and Technoscience by Donna J. Haraway. Illustrations by Lynn M. Randolph. Routledge, 1996
  
  There's a lot to chew on when the science and symbology of genetics meet postmodern analysis in the hands of Donna Haraway, who teaches science studies, feminist theory, and women's studies in the History of Consciousness Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
  
  
• Genetic Engineering or Nightmare? The Brave New World of Science and Business by Mae-Wan-Ho. Gateway books, 1998
  
  Classic polemic on the perceived dangers of genetic engineering.
  
  
• Profitable Promises: Essays on Women, Science and Health by Ruth Hubbard. Common Courage Press, Maine, 1995
  
  Harvard professor of biology emerita, Ruth Hubbard brings her provocative, experienced voice to the subject of the commercialization of genetic technology and research.

Genes & Food

• Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
  
  The FAO, a United Nations organization which monitors and advises member countries about developments in biotechnology, provides a number of resources through their site.
  
  Of particular interest are recommendations for international guidelines for safety assessment of foods and food components made by recombinant DNA methods.
  
  Also, check out the glossary of biotechnology and genetic engineering; get overviews of biotechnology in crops, fisheries, or other sectors; follow some of the many links to outside sites; or participate in the FAO Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture.
  
  
• Waiter, there's a gene in my food: the hot issues. First Australian Consensus Conference on Gene Technology in the Food Chain (1999)
  
  This website includes a good introduction to the debate over GM foods.
  
  
• GM Foods. New Scientist
  
  A collection of articles from 1996 to the present.
  
  
• An Introduction to Genetically Modified Foods. About.com
  
  About.com presents this collection of articles on food biotechnology, from the story of the Flavr Savr tomato to an explanation of transatlantic trade issues around GM foods.
  
  
• Genetically Modified Foods. National Academy of Sciences
  
  The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) provides information on how new genetic technologies can be used to feed the world. You will find links to statistical information, descriptions of international projects, and more.
  
  
• Biotechnology. FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
  
  Be sure to look at the "Information for Consumers" section of this Food and Drug Administation site. If you're not afraid of dry documents, look at the rest of the site for food biotechnology policy papers and background articles.

For & Against

• Safety of Genetically Engineered Foods: Approaches to Assessing Unintended Health Effects. National Academy of Sciences report. July 2004
  
  Long-awaited by partisans, this report by the National Academy of Sciences does not lend weight to either side of the controversy, rather it specifies the future research necessary to determine whether genetically engineered food is safe or harmful.
  
  
• Council for Responsible Genetics (CRG)
  
  The CRG provides information on genetically engineered food. See "genetically engineered food" under the "programs" heading.
  
  
• Animal Biotechnology: Science Based Concerns. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Board on Life Sciences (BLS), 2002
  
  A report on risks to health from genetically modified animals used as food.
  
  
• The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods
  
  This group organizes against what it calls Frankenfoods. Their website includes tutorials, explanative articles, and news stories and links regarding the European Union effort to block genetically modified foods, Greenpeace, etc.
  
  
• Council for Agricultural Science and Technology
  
  This group bills itself as "the science source for food, agricultural and environmental issues" and represents a consortium of applied and ecological science societies.
  
  
• Center for Ethics and Toxics
  
  This organization has proposed a set of ethical guidelines for food and ecological biotechnology. For the guidelines plus articles on labeling, ethics and the center's own study on phytoestrogens in genetically engineered foods, visit the site.
  
  
• AgBioWorld Foundation
  
  A site emphasizing the benefits and safety of agricultural biotechnology.
  
  
• Food First. The Institute for Food and Development Policy
  
  This group raises concerns about sustainability and safety and addresses claims that agricultural biotechnology is necessary to ease world hunger.
  
  
• Food Biotechnology. International Food Information Council
  
  Clearly written articles offer a very positive position on this food industry-funded foundation's informative site.
  
  
• Debate on Genetic Modification in Agriculture. Nature
  
  The website run by the journal Nature features a series of scientific community debates on controversial topics. The first is on "Benefits and Risks of Genetic Modification in Agriculture," moderated by crop geneticist Mike Wilkinson and featuring contributions by prominent scientists and environmentalists in the field.
  
  
• ETC: Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration
  
  ETC, an international organization dedicated to conservation and the sustainable improvement of agricultural biodiversity, runs an active campaign against the loss of genetic diversity and what it sees as the dangers of intellectual property rights on agriculture and the world food supply.
  
  
• Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)
  
  The IATP promotes family farms and conservation-based development.
  
  
• Biotechnology. Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)
  
  This series by the UCS examines genetic engineering's risks and benefits, especially in the context of sustainable agriculture.
  
  
• Field of Genes. The Why Files
  
  The Why Files explores the pest-resistant crop debate and questions what would happen if the bugs are destined to win anyway.

Specific Foods

• Kernels of Truth. East Bay Express, May 29, 2002
  
  University of California, Berkeley scientists David Quist and Ignacio Chapela reported in the November 2001 issue of Nature (414, pp. 541-542) that they had discovered evidence of genetic modification in native Mexican maize. Their suggestions of mechanisms by which GM traits could have "infected" the Oaxacan plants were particularly irksome to agribusiness. Their study was strongly criticized; Nature even printed an unusual near-retraction of the article (416, p. 601). The tale is told in the East Bay Express, a Berkeley weekly.
  
  
• Animal Biotechnology: Science Based Concerns. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Board on Life Sciences (BLS), 2002
  
  A report on risks to health from genetically modified animals used as food.
  
  
• Campaign on Genetically Engineered Fish. Center for Food Safety
  
  The Center for Food Safety is organizing against genetic modification of fish. They use their website to tell you about their progress, and back themselves up with science and news. See the press release (pdf format) reacting to the NASÅs report Animal Biotechnology: Science Based Concerns.
  
  

Patenting DNA

• Biotech Industry Primer
  
  Read the biotech industry's primer on "Genome and Genetic Research, Patent Protections, and 21st Century Medicine." Part of a larger collection about intellectual property.
  
  
• Guidelines for Gene Patents. United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and American Medical Association (AMA)
  
  A link to the USPTO Guidelines for Gene Patents, 2001, is available through the AMA website, along with a brief explanation.
  
  
• Gene Patent Guidelines Issued. Reuters, Jan. 5, 2001, and Wired.com
  
  Wired.com has a succinct explanation of the 2001 USPTO guidelines for clarifying patenting genes.
  
  
• Biotech Patenting 101. Council for Responsible Genetics
  
  This is a paper from the Council for Responsible Genetics. Their site includes other papers and documents on the subject.
  
  
• Patents and Genomic Medicine
  
  A biotech lawyer explains that it's not just patents on genes, but also patents on the technologies used to manipulate and study them, that could slow development of new drugs.
  
  
• Mother Jones Special Biotechnology Report issue. May/June 1998
  
  Don't miss the human body chart illustration of genes patented or with patent pending: Human Genes, An Owner's Guide.
  
  
• Who Owns My Disease? Mother Jones, December 2001
  
  Family and patient groups are beginning to stake claims on their own DNA. Mother Jones takes the story mainstream in this story.
  
  
• Bioprospecting or Biopiracy? Utne Reader
  
  The world has genetic riches waiting to be tapped - plants, animals, even people have special properties coded in their genes. Is the current rush to patent genes and cells bio-prospecting or bio-piracy. (Paid-access article)