Team:Duke/Human Practices

Our group was able to focus on two different areas of Human Practices. One area of focus is on the patentability of an engineered bacteria while the other area of focus was on the societal impacts if the engineered bacteria were to be used in society.

Overview of the Projects

An Overview and Analysis of the Societal Impacts of Taxol Biosynthesis in the United States

With a place on the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines1, Taxol is undeniably indispensable in treating cancer. Because of its demanding production process, Taxol is expensive and in short supply. Resultantly, access is decreased for people nationally and globally because of limitations based on treatment primarily stemming from high costs, inaccessibility. With the optimization of Taxol biosynthesis, Taxol would become much simpler and cheaper to produce, and would be available in greater quantity and ostensibly at a decreased price. The immediate societal and economic impacts beyond this decrease in production cost are much more nebulous, with cost and accessibility remaining major barriers to cancer treatment in the United States.

Patenting a New Form of Taxol Fermentation

         Taxol, also known as pacilitaxel, is a widely used chemotherapy drug typically extracted from the Yew tree. Mere extraction, however, does not yield sustainable returns because too-frequent extraction involves destroying the Yew tree source. Demand for Taxol has outstripped supply, and scientists have turned to developing Taxol in plant cells followed by industrial fermentation. The Duke University International Genetically Engineered Machine Project looks to go a step further, by generating Taxol in bacteria cell cultures instead of plant cell cultures. In order to use this invention to boost the market supply of Taxol, the IGEM team will eventually need a corporate or non-profit partner, and this partner will only be incentivized to participate if the IGEM team can offer exclusive licensing. Thus, the success of IGEM’s new genetically engineered bacteria largely hinges on its patentability with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This report walks through the relevant patent requirements, analyzes the case law, and comes to the conclusion that IGEM’s new genetically engineered bacteria meets the conditions for successful patentability.