Hot wealth
The discovery of Thermus acquaticus is an excellent story that includes generation of wealth, both economic and societal. First discovered from one of the hot springs at Yellowstone National Park. US, in 1966 by Thomas Brock, a microbiologist it was deposited by him in the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), a depository in the US, where it lay virtually untouched for two decades. In 1983, scientists at Cetus Corporation, US, a then relatively new biotechnology company, came out with a laboratory process known as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The process developed by Cetus allowed researchers to create large stretches of DNA from minute specimens. There was one hitch though. The polymerase they were working with was not capable of withstanding the high temperatures required for the process.
Enter T acquaticus. Scientists at Cetus simply mail-ordered the microbe from ATCC, worked on it for about three weeks and were successful in their experiments. The polymerase enzyme from this microbe could withstand high temperatures and replicate DNA efficiently. The potential was mind. boggling. Cetus then took out patents on the process as well as the enzyme from T acquaticus. However, finding itself in financial straits, Cetus sold the patents to Hoffman-LaRoche for US $300 million, along with royalty on sales. Currently, Hoffman-LaRoche and its partner Parkin-Elmer are earning more than US $200 million a year from the Pot process. Tiny they are, but as the above experiments show, microbes pack a neat fortune. Genetic information from specimens collected originally for research can, therefore, be exploited commercially and in such a manner that neither the donor nor the depositor (Thomas Brock In this case) nor the site from where it was isolated (Yellowstone National Park) being entitled to any benefits.
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