Innovation Law and Tech News 8

Sherkow quoted in New Yorker article on scientists quest to sequence every genome on earth

The Earth BioGenome Project has an ambitious plan to sequence a genome from every plant, animal, and fungus on the planet, as well as from many single-celled organisms, such as algae. As detailed in the New Yorker, the project faces a formidable foe in their quest to save the valuable genetic information encoded in each genome: ongoing mass extinction. A less ominous but still serious threat to the project is the question of ownership over DNA sequences, which Professor Jacob Sherkow spoke about in the article. “What’s best for science? What’s best for the world? What’s best for the particular country that we’re taking samples from?”: Sherkow listed these as examples the project must answer and find balance within.

Read the full article on the New Yorker website.

Sherkow quoted in New York Times article on Henrietta Lacks’ cells

Her cells are “immortal,” and so, it seems, is the legal battle over ownership of those cells. In an article about a recently settled lawsuit brought by the family of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cells were used without her knowledge or consent in research that helped develop treatments for many diseases, the New York Times quoted Professor Jacob Sherkow on the legal questions at the center of the case. The case revolved around the assumption that Lacks owned her body and any cells from it, but the property laws over cells are not as clear. “People think that because they have autonomy over their physical body, that means they have a, quote, property interest in it. That is just bluntly wrong,” Sherkow said, contradicting what might be considered common understanding.

New co-authored paper from Sherkow: “Regulating Direct-to-Consumer Polygenic Risk Scores”

Professor Jacob Sherkow has co-authored a paper, “Regulating Direct-to-Consumer Polygenic Risk Scores,” that was published in JAMA. In the paper, the authors argue that polygenic risk scores, which are used to predict risk factors for particular conditions using genetic data, require better government regulation.

Read the full paper at jamanetwork.com.