When academic institutions, biotech firms, and pharmaceutical companies from around the world need money to underwrite their ideas, they turn to New York City's venture capitalists and investment banks.

The cost of obtaining a patent in the life sciences is high and likely to get higher, even as a growing legal complexity and regulatory logjam lengthen the amount of time it takes to get the patent in hand."Most people don't like to hear it, but they know it is going to cost quite a bit," says Robert Hunter, a registered patent agent who practices out of Kamuela, Hawaii. "Quite a bit" generally means more than the price of a minivan but less than the sticker on a Hummer, or somewhere in the neig

Invitrogen HeadquartersCourtesy of InvitrogenWhen Invitrogen recruited General Electric Medical Systems executive Gregory Lucier to be its new CEO in May 2003, it looked like the biotechnology toolmaker was ready to take some lessons out of the big corporate textbook. Years in top positions at the old-economy giant had imbued Lucier with ideas such as financial discipline and operational efficiency, which don't always come naturally to companies pushing the cutting edge of science. Perhaps most

Assessing whether a laboratory practice makes great science or an invitation to an ethics investigation is not always easy in the highly charged atmosphere of a research enterprise.

File PhotoLife in the laboratory can seem increasingly rule-bound, especially in these high-security times. In studying what makes life scientists tick, some researchers suspect that the most important decisions fall into the gray areas between the rules, leaving scientists groping for guidance."If you were to go into a laboratory and just watch for a month ... you would probably find a whole culture governed by rules that are largely not written down at all," says Nick Steneck, a University of

The Bush Administration ban on federal funding for research involving human embryonic stem cell lines created after Aug. 6, 2001 has presented scientists with practical problems, as well as moral and ethical dilemmas. According to the policy, no federal dollars can feed work on new lines of human embryonic stem cells. Such research could hold hope for patients with Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases, diabetes, spinal cord injuries, and other afflictions.Now that private and state funds are arrivin

File PhotoThe rush to put new rules in place for handling potentially dangerous materials in US laboratories last year put many in the research community on edge.Long before the prospect of bioterrorism became a national worry, scientists studying virulent pathogens had worked out safety standards to make sure the ugliest of bugs were not let loose on the public. The fear was that government regulators would add only more paperwork and costs to the process, getting in the way of research.Regulat

File PhotoAboycott over the high price of online access to scientific journals has turned into a rolling protest with faculty and administrators, for once, on the same side of a budget battle.By last month, Harvard University, Cornell University, Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had all joined the movement that started in 2003 at the University of California, San Francisco. The schools' faculty took a hard line in contract nego

Figure 1Most US researchers have their own version of the burst dot-com bubble: the failed promise that electronic communications would ease the process of interacting with the federal government.Just like the old paper world of forms, forms, and more forms, the Internet has filled up with systems, systems, and more systems for applying for grants electronically. Each system requires researchers and laboratory staff to master a new set of clicks, meet a new set of deadlines, follow a new logic.B

At $300 or $400 or $600 an hour, a chat with a patent lawyer should offer some measure of comfort for a research scientist venturing into the potential minefield of discoveries worthy of legal protection. Rather than soldiering blindly forward with research in one of the hot new areas, a scientist can always consult a lawyer to check out the patented competition and avoid intruding on someone else's territory, right?Actually, no. In fact, according to briefs filed with the nation's leading paten

File photo Scientists are debating the implications of a proposed new set of rules requiring federal agencies to consult outside scientists systematically when revising regulations. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) says that the "peer-review" requirements are meant to "further engage the scientific community in the regulatory process." Under the draft rules, independent scientists must review significant amendments to any federal agency rule, which includes amendments tha

File Photo Major peer-reviewed science journals are toughening rules that require authors to say when they have a financial stake in topics of their articles. The moves from Science and Nature come in response to letters exposing what critics say were a series of publications by people whose pocketbooks could have been hurt or helped by articles published in the journals. Nature's new policy takes effect in October, while Science has underlined its existing policy and asked its editorial boar