August 30, 2011
ideas
Last month, MIT researcher published in PLos ONE about a broad-spectrum antiviral treatment. This treatment uses the idea that if the host's natural defense detects dsRNA, why not help the process along. So this researcher created a chimeric molecule that one end detects dsRNA (which occurs in most virus infections) and the other end activates the alarm response (apoptosis pathway) within the cell.
Initial responses to the article has been broad from MIT touting their own horn to many people doubting the efficacy in clinical models. Like one of the commenters, such a grandiose idea would never fly in my lab. Yet, I believe the idea was bold and the experiments were carried out in depth including testing in in vivo models and showed efficacy in blocking viral transference. It was even bolder for the researcher to incorporate it into his patent. This is yet another example why I think the PTO is nuts sometimes.
I can appreciate a paper where a researcher is showing more creativity in idea than is sometimes acceptable. I do not appreciate that the US government is letting him patent an idea that is essentially putting two items together and may stifle more interesting ideas later on.
Posted by azileretsis at August 30, 2011 12:50 PM
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