Roger Brent, director of the Molecular Sciences Institute in Berkeley, is a leader in open source biotech:
Putting his patents where his principles are, Dr. Brent’s institute has drafted an “Open Source Policy” which commits to “[making] reagents and methods freely available to the research community.”
You can see MSI’s open source policy and a White Paper (short PDF) on their website.
Soon you’ll be able to see him speak online thanks to streaming video — available for the first time this year — from one of my favorite conferences, PopTech!, held every year in Camden, Maine. It’s a pricy meeting in a far-off location for most of us, so having the streaming video is an excellent addition. Try to tune in for Brent’s talk and see if his open source biotech experience is something we can apply to nanotech.
All the speakers should be good. Look especially for Richard Dawkins, Kevin Kelly, and Craig Venter. —Christine
