Two Points
I have procrastinated for three months before I finally decided to re-visit my previous blog on RNAi. I want to use this Blog to illustrate two points. Firstly how fundamental research can lead to patentable platform technology which Christensen called "disruptive technology". Secondly, I would like to use this case as an illustration on how to look up information related to an issued patent that would not be apparent in the patent itself. Shortly after my blog on RNAi in September 2006, it was announced in October 2006 that Andrew Fire and Craig Mello were the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on RNAi. Their discovery that double-stranded RNA when injected into worms would silence the gene with the complimentary sequence was published in Nature in 1998. Underscoring the importance of this discovery is the fact that the Nobel Prize was awarded only eight years later after the initial discovery.
