"One of the greatest frauds perpetrated on the public has been the idea that you can patent an isolated gene". For twenty years we have been walking around, encountering a genetic whirlpool of people of different shapes and colours, barely conscious that 4000 of the 20 000 genes inside each of us, belong to a big wig at a bio-tech company. That is, unless you fall ill, or watch your mother struggle with breast cancer, like Joanna. Suddenly being tested for those genes could save your life: "it cost $4000 to find out I had the 'breast cancer' gene; getting a second opinion was illegal".

"I think the single greatest thing I did was to create Myriad", says Mark Skolnick, founder of the American company that discovered and patented two crucial breast cancer genes. Yet many women struggling for proper diagnosis and affordable treatment, disagreed. In March 2010, a legal battle to break the back of the gene cartels, in particular Myriad, emerged. Finally a New York judge ruled that no one had the right to own a human gene. Dr Wendy Chung was overjoyed. She had spent years testing patients for the presence of genes that meant they had "a 50 to 85% chance of developing some kind of cancer", but was then unable to share the results with her patients.

At risk of losing their multi-million dollar investments and even greater profits, it's unsurprising that Myriad appealed, and that they're ready to take the battle all the way to the Supreme Court. "This sort of resource and expertise is only going to come from industry", argues Professor John Shine. Yet a a team in Sydney, which has made all the genes it discovers free to the public domain, is redefining the gene research industry. Professor Grimmond says: "it's something we're able to do much quicker, and much cheaper than ever before". Meanwhile, in the courtrooms of the US and Australia, the genes war battle continues to rage.

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