iGEM 2015 team Tufts
Tufts team’s iGEM project focused on the attempts to deliver the genome editing tool CRISPR/Cas9 into mammalian cells. Application scenario considered the impacts that a patent on CRISPR/Cas9 technology will have on different fields including law, policy, business and academia, while also questioning the role of intellectual property law in the current age of synthetic biology. Their technomoral scenario explores in a form of a short story a situation, where person finds himself no longer able to donate his own blood, due to giving up his rights to sections of his own DNA when treated with CRISPR/Cas9 drug that saved his life. As part of their work the team also organized a seminar about intellectual property law in biotechnology, with speakers from policy, academia, law, and industry.