Barbara Ruskin

Barbara Ruskin

Abstract

The new genetic technologies available to conservation biologists pose complex and profound questions scarcely contemplated when the existing legal framework was enacted. We examine relevant laws and consider whether they can adequately accommodate the broad range of legal and moral issues raised by those technologies. In particular, we consider the likely impact on new genetic technologies of existing laws concerning intellectual property and the preservation of biodiversity. Specifically, we assess the patentability of whole organism somatic clones of endangered and previously extinct species, and consider whether creating ownership interests in cloned species is consistent with the aims of landmark conservation legislation. We further consider whether somatic cloning of whole organisms would ultimately advance or subvert the aims of the Endangered Species Act and similar international laws and whether the introduction of cloned species into the wild or the marketplace would be impacted by a host of other laws and regulations, such as environmental protection laws, the Food, Drug & Cosmetics Act, and the National Forest Management Act. Finally, we consider whether meaningful legal protection exists (or should exist) under the Copyright Act and trade secrecy law for the new "libraries" of conservation biology, such as frozen tissue collections and bioinformatics databases. .

Biography

Barbara A. Ruskin received a B.A. in biochemistry (with honors) from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981, a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University in 1987 (with Dr. Michael Green on mammalian RNA splicing), and a J.D. (with honors) from Fordham Law School in 1998. She did postdoctoral work with Dr. Gerald Fink at the Whitehead Institute (MIT) from 1987-1991, with Dr. Charles Kimmel at the Neuroscience Institute (University of Oregon, Eugene) from 1991-1992, and was a visiting assistant professor at City College of New York from 1992-1993. Her scientific work spans bacteria, yeast, drosophila, mammalian cell and zebrafish systems. She joined the New York intellectual property law firm of Fish & Neave in 1993 as a technical advisor and became a registered patent agent in 1995. She has been an associate at Fish & Neave since 1998 and works exclusively in the field of biotechnology patent law.

Relevant Publications

Ruskin B., A.R. Krainer, , T. Maniatis, and M.R. Green. 1984. Excision of an intact intron as a novel lariat structure during pre-mRNA splicing in vitro. Cell, 38, pp. 317-331.

Ruskin, B. and M.R. Green. 1985. Role of the 3' splice site consensus sequence in mammalian pre-mRNA splicing. Nature, 317, pp. 732-734.

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