<b>Devangshu Datta:</b> The ethics of editing genes

In theory, CRISPR can be used to edit out diseases such as diabetes

One of the most momentous patents in history was awarded recently and the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) may actually have sided with the wrong scientific team. After a high-profile debate of conflicting claims, the USPTO confirmed a patent for the gene-editing technology, CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) CAS-9, awarded to Dr Feng Zhang of the Broad Institute, which is jointly owned by MIT and Harvard.  

While USPTO sided with the Broad Institute, the scientific community seems to think the competing team of Dr Jennifer Doudna and Dr Emmanuelle Charpentier at the University of California, Berkeley,