Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is one of the renowned homes for the expansions of knowledge about molecular biology. Now, with law and science increasingly intersecting, CSL is hosting a March 10-13, 2013 conference on genes and patents, a topic of great relevance as the Myriad "gene patent" case heads back to the U.S. Supreme Court. Hat tip to Patent Docs for publicizing the conference.
In my opinion, patents on genes themselves are absurd, and have slowed progress in science and thereby caused some people to suffer or die who otherwise would have been helped. Patent thickets invetibaly cause delays. So, I was delighted when the ACLU and others successfully challenged gene patents with the Myriad case, and when the U.S. Supreme Court used the Prometheus case to strike down a patent claim tied to making treatment choices based on results from lab tests.