It doesn't make sense to me, but we have 45 issued patents and 40 pending patents in the US. The 30 European patents are unaffected by the ruling. I'm carrying on with my research.
The origin of the patent fight was not about money. It was not over commercial control but over credit that it was so strongly fought.
That's your speculation. It's hard to say, isn't it? I don't know what other people's motives were. We don't agree with the decision. 30 countries don't agree if you're talking about who invented what first.
What does it tell you about how the patent system works, that there could be one person accepting a prize but then the patent goes elsewhere? Is that understandable to people?
It doesn't make sense to me. I don't know if it makes sense to other people. There is no question about what happened in the scientific community.
Walter Isaacson wrote biographies of Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci, as well as a book about you. What was it like to be a part of your biography?
If I'm honest, it'sumbling and terrifying. I feel fortunate that Walter was interested in the story because he is a wonderful writer. He tried to capture the feeling we all had of being a part of this amazing transformation.
You are the chief science advisor to Sixth Street. Why did you take on that role, and what are you planning to do there?
At Sixth Street, we can identify the right teams, the right opportunities, the right openings where financing could really accelerate the science and the business opportunities. Machine learning can be used to analyze the data that are coming out of CRISPR. Understanding the function of genes is one of the important opportunities that will come with the use of CRISPR. Whole sets of genes and pathways and different cell types are included. The types of data that come from those efforts contain a lot of information. I think that using machine learning to mine those kinds of data sets will be very powerful. You could imagine using that type of strategy to understand the genetics of disease and to identify new therapies.
I always think of you as a scientist. I remember seeing a picture of you leaning over a student's shoulder and who you are. This is asking you to do something different. Why do you think you could be good at picking technologies for commercial investment?
When I am in the lab looking at data, my best days are when I am leaning over a student. I have come to realize that for the next decade to have an impact, the right teams will need to be built.
According to a survey in Harvard Business Review, only 2.3% of the money given to startup was going to women. Were you surprised to learn that?
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