CHICAGO, May 3, 2013 — Bioinformatics is rapidly evolving, and a new book by the American Bar Association Section of Science and Technology Law provides a valuable and much-needed resource to keep up with the continuously changing field.
The book, Bioinformatics Law: Legal Issues for Computational Biology in the Post-Genome Era, will serve as a useful resource for lawyers, researchers, policymakers and scholars on the complex intersection of law and bioinformatics. A host of experts, from law to science, offers insights and research that will help in navigating this complex environment and cutting-edge research into bioinformatics, a field that develops and improves upon methods for storing, retrieving, organizing and analyzing biological data.
Thousands of laboratories across the globe are studying the human genome sequence, with new associations between genetic variations and diseases and physiological traits announced weekly. Many experts say the world has entered a “post-genome” era, a time in which the availability of the human genome sequence is taken as a given and serves as a starting point for multiple new and innovative research endeavors.
The book tackles a range of issues associated with this booming field, from the intellectual property landscape that deals with patents and other areas to the legal issues raised by software tools that enable large-scale computational biology. Also covered are the legal aspects of the research environments in which bioinformatics work is increasingly conducted, including biopharma collaborations and university research and development, among many other areas.
About the Authors
Jorge L. Contreras is an associate professor at American University’s Washington College of Law. His research focuses primarily on the effects of intellectual property structures on the dissemination and production of technological innovation, with a focus on basic scientific research and technical standards. Contreras is co-chairman of the ABA Section of Science and Technology Law’s Committee on Technical Standardization and a member of the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Intellectual Property Management in Standard-Setting Processes. He is the editor of the Technical Standards Patent Policy Manual (ABA Publishing: Chicago, 2007) and has written numerous articles, book chapters and blog postings relating to intellectual property and standards development. He recently became the founding editor of the Social Science Research Network’s Law, Policy and Economics of Technical Standards eJournal, and in 2011, he was awarded first place in the Society for Standards Professionals’ World Standards Day Paper Competition (together with co-authors). Before joining the faculty of American University, Contreras was senior lecturer and acting director of the Intellectual Property Program at Washington University in St. Louis and a partner at the international law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP. He is a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School.
Dr. A. Jamie Cuticchia has more than 20 years of academic and industry experience leading groups in computational biology, genomics, high-performance computing, software engineering and genome database construction. He has held numerous leadership positions, including professorships at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. Cuticchia founded the Ontario Center for Genomic Computing, a Top 500 Supercomputing Center and the largest supercomputing center devoted solely to addressing issues of life sciences. He also held several full- and part-time industrial positions, including director of computational biology for the MITRE Corp., director of bioinformatics and genomics for ChemGenics Pharmaceuticals, director of drug discovery information technology for Millennium Pharmaceuticals, consulting vice president of genomic information for Ceres Genomics, chief information officer for SynX Pharmaceuticals, and scientific founder of New Chemical Entities. Cuticchia was also director of bioinformatics for the Research Triangle Institute. After several years at RTI, he went to the Duke University Health System, where he held numerous positions, including Duke bioinformatics scholar. He completed a law degree and was licensed by the North Carolina Bar to practice law. He is presently winding down his work at Duke and transitioning to his new law practice, AJC Legal Services. Cuticchia, however, intends to remain active in the scientific field.
Title: Bioinformatics Law: Legal Issues for Computational
Biology in the Post-Genome Era
Publisher: Section of Science and Technology Law
Pages: 248
Product Code: 5450067
ISBN: 978-1-62722-010-1
Size: 6×9
Price: $99.95
Orders: 800-285-2221 or ambar.org/bioinformatics
Editor’s note: Review copies are available by sending an email to Dean Pappas at Dean.Pappas@americanbar.org. If you publish a review of this book, please send tear sheets or a copy for our files to Dean Pappas, American Bar Association, Book Publishing, 321 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60654.
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