Jakob Wested

Short presentation

Synthetic biologists try to enable the engineering and redesign biology through the development of biological parts and devices. As a biotechnological discipline synthetic biology differentiates itself through the emphasis on community building and the ambition to promote openness and sharing as the modus operandi of the community inspired by the open source software movement. CRISPR is a new and promising technology that enables precision editing in genomic sequences – a capability that may be of great utility for synthetic biology and many other biotech disciplines. The first patents on a wide scope of applications of the CRISPR technology where granted in the spring 2014, and the potential value of the patent given the broad scope of applications of CRISPR, are therefore considerable.

The emphasis on practising openness and the view to broad patenting of a foundational technology like CRISPR has spurred he old debate about the relationship between technology, patents and innovation, and (again) elucidated the limited scope and uncertainty that economic and legal analysis offer on this subject. The increased vigour of the ELSA and RRI research agenda that has emerged along with the life science industry has increasingly engaged in this ongoing debate. From this line of research many different interdisciplinary approaches are bringing new knowledge, insights and methods to the discourse.

It is the ambition of this thesis to place the current patent disputes unfolded in relation to CRISPR in an interdisciplinary theoretical context and develop relevant insights and considerations as to how patents, technology and innovation may be reconciled in a fruitful and balanced manner in the booming and globalized knowledge society.           

Current research

Patents and foundational technologies in synthetic biology

Tranparency regulation

Law and Innovation systems

Knitting patterns 

Fields of interest

Intellectual property

Open Innovation

Law and Technology

Philosophy of Law

Interdisciplinarity

Synthetic biology