Should genes be patented?

A public discussion on the topical issue of gene patenting will be held in Melbourne on April 24.

Organised by the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia and the Melbourne Business School Centre for Ideas and the Economy, the aim is to provide a forum for academia, government, business and science to discuss the issue of gene patenting.

The moderator will be Melbourne Business School’s Professor Joshua Gans, and the panel includes Dr Gillian Mitchell, head of the familial cancer centre at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and Professor Dianne Nicol of the Centre for Law and Genetics at the University of Tasmania.

Other panel members and speakers include law and business academics from Australia, the US and Israel, including IP specialist Professor Gregory Mandel from Temple University Law School.

The seminar will be held from 9.30am to 11.30 am at the Coles Theatre at Melbourne Business School, the University of Melbourne.

The event is free but attendees must register register.

For more information on the BRCA1 gene patenting debate, and a full interview with Genetic Technologies founder Dr Merv Jacobson, see the March/April issue of Australian Life Scientist, out this week.