Those of you who have followed my posts for almost 2 years know that I have stated they have had this wrong all along... they still do not have it completely right, but at least they are admitting to being wrong the first go around.
This quote from the New York Times article (requires subscription)
"But when it comes to innovations in food and medicine, belief can be dangerous."
It’s been presumed that genes in the human body operate independently of one another since 1976. The first biotech company was founded on this premise, and the entire $73.5-billion biotechnology industry as we know it today still adheres to this basic principle.
Now for the shocker: they’re wrong.
It’s been known for years that genes in other organisms operate as part of a network. Despite this, researchers only translated this knowledge to humans in June, when they report being “surprised” to learn that the human genome is not a “tidy collection of independent genes” but rather a complex network that interacts and overlaps with itself in ways that are not yet understood.
Scientific Basis for Countless Safety Studies Shattered
Risk assessments conducted for all of today’s biotech products, including genetically modified (GM) foods, pharmaceuticals and more, were based on the flawed independent gene theory, which presumed that a gene in one item would have a uniform effect if transferred to another, and that each gene carries the information needed to construct one protein.
Now that gene “network effects” have been acknowledged, it’s clear that biotech products could produce any number of unknown effects.
Jack Heinemann, a professor of molecular biology at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand put it quite well when he said, “The real worry for us has always been that the commercial agenda for biotech may be premature, based on what we have long known was an incomplete understanding of genetics.”
This is likely to be just the beginning of the dangerous revelations that will come surrounding GM foods, prescription drugs and other biotech products, and their vastly unknown impacts on your health.
"In 2005, a study showed that more than 4,000 human genes had already been patented in the United States alone. And this is but a small fraction of the total number of patented plant, animal and microbial genes."
"If genes are only one component of how a genome functions, for example, will infringement claims be subject to dispute when another crucial component of the network is claimed by someone else? Might owners of gene patents also find themselves liable for unintended collateral damage caused by the network effects of the genes they own? "
“We’re learning that many diseases are caused not by the action of single genes, but by the interplay among multiple genes,” Ms. Caulfield said. She noted that just before she wrote her article, “scientists announced that they had decoded the genetic structures of one of the most virulent forms of malaria and that it may involve interactions among as many as 500 genes.”
"...every attempt to challenge safety claims for biotech products has been categorically dismissed, or derided as unscientific."
The last one reminds me of some debates I have had here on the zone.
I still haven't figured out exactly how one patents a "human" gene? Or any gene in nature for that matter. And if it does not occur naturally, it isn't exactly a "human" gene is it?
It all makes me want to patent my middle finger and then donate it to medical science.
Yes, when I die please give my middle finger to medical science.
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New "Discovery" -- Gene Theory Flawed 
