Patents extend to genes

Question: Maybe you think you own the 24,000 genes passed along to you by your parents in creation of your body and mind. Well, think again.

Answer: Actually, more than 4,000 of the 24,000 human genes stored in the (U.S.) National Center for Biotechnology Information database are tagged with at least one patent, as reported by Science magazine. Incyte Corp. of Wilmington, Del., alone owns nearly 10 percent of all human genes, says Scientific American. "But how can my genes be patented?" people will ask. And what happens to cancer research when half of all known cancer genes are patented?

Some 25 years ago the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that living things are patentable, so long as they are "man-made." Importantly, it is not the actual genes in your body that are owned by corporations, universities or others but rather "an isolated and purified form" of them. Meaning the patent holder on an isolated and cloned gene has rights to market the protein manufactured — say, insulin or human growth hormone — in the same way a chemical company might purify a B vitamin and patent it.

Weirder still is the Harvard University OncoMouse, the animal itself patented by scientists who created it with a gene predisposing it to contract cancer, valuable for their research. "The addition of the oncogene meant that this was a mouse 'invented' by a human," says Scientific American. The whole notion troubles many, with much yet to be thrashed out on this controversial matter.

Question: From a Cleveland reader: "I saw on the Internet about foods with 'negative calories,' i.e., the chewing and digestion consume enough energy that diet-wise, they're actual pound-shedders. Wow! Sure beats working out!"

Answer: Better hang on to those barbells, because you could masticate that sugarless gum all afternoon and burn off negligible calories (11kcal/hr by one small study), says Purdue nutritionist Richard Mattes. Or you could try eating tonnages of celery, also with likely small benefit.

Moreover, since few foods (if you consider gum a food) fit into this category, their appeal would nose dive fast and so would your compliance. Any weight loss coming out of this would be trivial. Worse, if you did somehow manage to consume these foods in such large quantities, you'd likely suffer nutrient imbalances entailing health risks. Bottom line: "Adding a drop of water to a swimming pool daily would technically lead to a full pool, too, but the likelihood of this amounting to anything is about zero."