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Who Owns CRISPR? The Billion-Dollar War for Genetic Power | GeneBrief #005

Who Owns CRISPR? The Billion-Dollar War for Genetic Power | GeneBrief #005

Two labs. One base pair. A decade-long battle over who gets to rewrite life itself.

Mario S
May 29, 2025

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Who Owns CRISPR? A $1 Billion DNA War Over One Base Pair

The decade-long patent war over CRISPR just got a plot twist. UC Berkeley and the Broad Institute have been fighting over who owns the rights to CRISPR-Cas9 in human cells — and the stakes are sky-high. While Doudna and Charpentier first showed CRISPR could cut DNA, Broad’s Feng Zhang was first to file patents on its use in eukaryotic cells. That distinction has already brought in over $400 million in licensing fees — and potentially billions more.

But in May 2025, a federal appeals court told the U.S. patent office to reconsider. Why? It may have used the wrong legal standards when siding with Broad in 2022. Now UC has another shot to prove they laid the groundwork for CRISPR’s biggest applications — in medicine, biotech, and beyond. At the center of it all? A dispute over a single base pair.

This isn’t just about credit. It’s about who gets to control the future of gene editing — and who cashes in.

This Startup Is Editing Mosquitoes to Kill Themselves

A gene-edited extinction plan is unfolding in the wild — and it’s already beyond the lab.

The biotech firm Oxitec is releasing mosquitoes programmed to wipe out their own population — targeting Aedes aegypti, the invasive species that spreads dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever.

Their approach? Only males are released (they don’t bite). When they mate with wild females, they pass down a gene that causes all female offspring to die before adulthood.

With no females to reproduce, the population crashes — fast.

This isn’t theoretical. Brazil has released over 1 billion gene-edited mosquitoes since 2018. The first U.S. trial began in the Florida Keys in 2021. In both locations, Oxitec reports dramatic population declines.

But not everyone’s convinced. Some scientists warn of unintended mutations, resistance, and ecological disruption. Others see this as a test run for more powerful tools like gene drives — which could be used for species control, conservation, or even biowarfare.

Would You Drink Coffee Grown in a Lab?

What if your morning coffee never touched a farm? Startups like Atomo and Compound Foods are racing to create coffee… without coffee.

Using upcycled ingredients like date pits, sunflower husks, and chicory, they’re brewing lab-made coffee that mimics the taste, aroma, and caffeine kick of traditional beans.

Why? Because climate change is squeezing coffee farming. Atomo claims its beanless brew uses 94% less water and emits 93% less CO₂ than traditional coffee production.

But it’s not just about sustainability — it’s about survival. If arabica beans become unsustainable, is this the future of coffee… or is it synthetic heresy?

Critics say it erases tradition and livelihoods. Proponents call it necessary innovation. The battle is brewing.

Would you drink it?

🧠 The Brief Byte

Your gut is home to over 100 trillion microbes — vastly outnumbering your human cells.
— Nature, 2022

🔦 Spotlight

Altos Labs

Altos Labs isn’t your average biotech. It’s backed by Jeff Bezos, run by Nobel Prize winners, and fueled by a single, sci-fi mission: Make cells young again.

Their approach? Cellular reprogramming — a technique that uses Yamanaka factors (OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, and c-MYC) to rewind the biological age of a cell. Instead of replacing old cells, Altos wants to reset them — restoring youthful function without erasing identity.

In mice, this has already worked. Partial reprogramming in vivo has extended lifespan, reversed age-related decline, and restored organ function. The challenge now? Can we do it in humans — without triggering cancer or stem cell chaos?

Altos is building a map of what aging looks like — epigenetically, proteomically, transcriptionally — and training cells to forget it. They’re not targeting a single disease. They’re targeting the source code of aging itself.

This isn’t immortality. It’s cellular amnesia. And it might be the biggest longevity bet ever made.