A Case Study in Intellectual Property

The History of IP and Open-Source in Zinc Finger Technology

Discovered in 1985, zinc finger proteins have rapidly become a staple of gene therapy innovation. A cascade of research has transformed our understanding of the zinc finger domain from a natural transcription factor to a tool for highly specific genome alteration. As the zinc finger motif was domesticated and fused to DNA cleaving domains, its practical application to gene therapy through targeted gene alteration was realized. Seeking to harness zinc finger potential, researchers and entrepreneurs collaborated to form Sangamo Biosciences in 1995, which emerged as the sole commercial provider of the protein. Today, the Sangamo monopoly raises a variety difficult ethical and economic questions about intellectual property within the zinc finger field, and synthetic biology as a whole. As an open-source alternative to Sangamo’s proprietary system and commercial dominance, Keith Joung and others have published the OPEN system of zinc finger creation. However, while the OPEN system and subsequent improvements are promising for massive zinc finger production, the methods are difficult and time-consuming to implement, and gaps remain in the list of available DNA binding targets.

Harvard iGEM and Human Practices

Where does our project stand in this complex and contentious history?

The objective of our project was to provide an open-source, "reduced-to-practice" method for zinc finger production through the novel application and integration of technologies. This method allows for the rapid creation of custom zinc fingers in a high-volume fashion for targeting novel binding sequences. This, in turn, has enabled us to fill gaps of undiscovered zinc finger binders in the OPEN and CoDA database and other open-source zinc finger databases. Most importantly, our open-source BioBrick materials and detailed protocols greatly increase the accessibility of zinc finger technology: our foundational advance helps to overcome the prohibitively high price tags of the present market. We aim to increase the accessibility of our method, which can in turn be applied by others to the generation of novel biological interactions beyond zinc fingers. We wish to share our data and results with the community, highlighting our successes and failures to collectively advance our knowledge of designing novel biological interactions. In addition, in our human practices we seek to open address pertinent ethical and legal concerns surrounding the impact of intellectual property in synthetic biology, and to open a dialogue to raise awareness about these issues.

No Finger-Pointing

A Case Study in Intellectual Property and Open Source Alternatives

Playing Monopoly

Zinc finger intellectual property is held predominantly by a single commercial research institution, unlike many other areas of research where intellectual property is distributed across a wide variety of interested parties. This institution, Sangamo Biosciences Inc., is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company which focuses on zinc finger production for clinical applications. Sangamo has acquired most of the patent rights for the exclusive production and use of zinc finger proteins as DNA-modifying molecules. The result is an imbalance in the legal rights to research zinc fingers and their related medical applications which has notable consequences.

iGEM & iP

The questions raised by this case study are of particular importance for synthetic biology, which has historically placed great emphasis on an open-source nature. iGEM in particular has placed great value on this history. The Registry of Standard Biological parts and the concept of BioBricks are fundamental examples: characterized, standardized parts are available to on the registry website (http://parts.mit.edu) to anyone with Internet access. In fact, IP questions are relevant for many of the technologies developed and used in the competition.

Implications for Sangamo, general research, and the world

First, researchers outside of Sangamo may be less motivated to research zinc finger technology because there is less of a foreseeable reward with patent rights blocking any prospect of earning a profit from patenting new technology. Additionally, the cost of purchasing a single zinc finger protein from Sangamo is prohibitively high, limiting the possibilities for significant outside research. Second, Sangamo is able to monopolize the zinc finger market and intellectual capital which means that they become a powerful specialized research institution with the ability to potentially achieve progress at a faster pace than multiple individual institutions. These two effects act in opposite directions from the perspective of making intellectual progress for humanity. Thus we arrive at the central question: Does the Sangamo zinc finger monopoly augment the positive effects of research benefits for humanity and profit for individual researchers? Is the Sangamo research monopoly more beneficial to all involved parties

Opening the Field

The economic consequences of monopoly have, of course, been posed by some as a clear negative consequence of the Sangamo phenomenon. The lack of transparency in the field ultimately inhibits outside research while promoting Sangamo’s internal research. In a single-actor monopoly, standard economic theory predicts that the rational market actor will sell at the profit-maximizing price. This price however does not necessarily maximize social benefit especially since monopolistic trade results in deadweight loss [1]. In other words, this means that the collective world production of societal benefits (such as medical treatments) potentially decreases at the cost of maximum profit for Sangamo.

Benefits of IP

However, others have argued that concentrating intellectual property in a single company has actually promoted innovation and progress in the field [2]. By bringing the leading researchers in zinc finger technology together, Sangamo might allow zinc finger researchers to be more productive through close collaboration than they otherwise would have been working individually. Furthermore, specialization in zinc finger technology minimizes costs of production that individual researchers would otherwise face. From the perspective of consumers purchasing zinc fingers, valuable time and negotiation costs may be saved by working with one company rather than many.

Conclusion: Striking a Balance

The ultimate goal of both Sangamo and other researchers is to make progress in scientific innovation while gaining profit from intellectual property. Naturally both Sangamo and other science researchers will tend to maximize personal profit. However, we suggest that the optimal scenario would maximize both scientific progress and the collective profit gained by each research actor. This optimal point can be achieved only by a proper balance between intellectual property right regulation and open source technology. Therefore we propose that there be an investigation into the current status of the zinc finger intellectual market with respect to the social and private profit-maximizing values. Currently the market lies heavily in favor of maximizing the private profits for Sangamo and the chance that this is the overall profit-maximizing equilibrium is therefore lessened. Only by properly informing the scientific community of the implications of imbalance between intellectual property rights and open source technology can we hope to achieve the most efficient research conditions for the future of synthetic biology research.

References

1. Mankiw, G. (2012). Principles of Economics. New York: South-Western Cengage Learning.

2. Chandrasekharan, S., Kumar, S., Valley, C., & Rai, A. (2009). Proprietary science, open science and the role of patent disclosure: the case of zinc-finger proteins. Nature Biotechnology, 140-144. [http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v27/n2/full/nbt0209-140.html#B36]