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SiliconValley.com: Computer scientists push to publish code powering genetic research
Submitted by Gary Van Domselaar; posted on Sunday, November 25, 2001
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"Before computer whiz Steven E. Brenner accepted his tenure-track research post at the University of California-Berkeley last year, he demanded that the school's intellectual property police leave him alone.
"Brenner prevailed. He's now one of the few experts in the emerging field of bioinformatics with the freedom to distribute his work, software used in gene research.
"``It's vital to what we do,'' says Brenner, who supports a movement to force universities to allow ``open source'' publishing of gene research software code.
"It's a somewhat quixotic movement, since universities' 2,000 yearly patents now provide 10 percent of their budgets, about $5 billion. With government funding on the decline, schools say they need to profit from faculty research.
"The movement also runs counter to U.S. laws that permit publicly funded schools to enter into exclusive licensing agreements with private companies.
"Unlike scientists who keep research secret until it is published in a peer-review journal, some software developers – who get little credit when their code leads to a genetic breakthrough – want to share their work as soon as it leaves their keyboards.
"It's an old debate in the world of computing – and a new culture clash in bioinformatics, the practice of using computers to search genetic material for potential cures that has caused such excitement in the medical community.
"The problem with not sharing the software code of bioinformatics programs, say researchers like Brenner, is that bugs can go unnoticed, hindering scientific advances.
"With collaboration, open-source advocates say, the quality of bioinformatics software will improve.
"But universities – and some programmers – oppose the open source movement, fearful valuable trade secrets could be lost."
Full Story at SiliconValley.com:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/015842.htm
Reference by Slashdot.org
http://slashdot.org
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