Rejected patents on genes

Amid all the hype over the federal health care law before the Supreme Court, you might have missed this even more relevant news: The high court rejected an appeals court ruling allowing genes to be patented. The case involves two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer, patented by Myriad Genetics Inc.
The ruling is not a final decision, but sends the case back down to the district court for further action.
The Supreme Court said it threw out the appeals ruling in part because of a different SCOTUS ruling last week, in which it said laws of nature are unpatentable. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been awarding patents on human genes for almost 30 years.
Either way, the final outcome will have major impacts on cancer research, personalized medicine and other gene-related medical fields