Richard Jefferson Interviewed in Com Ciência

I enjoyed this interview with Richard Jefferson (caution: PDF) from Com Ciência No. 102, October 05, 2008. Richard runs CAMBIA, a group that fights for open innovation in biological sciences. He's particularly cautionary about the potential for patents to greatly restrict the development of Synthetic Biology (SB):

But don't doubt there will be some very interesting biological understanding that emerges from engineering experimentation in SB. Probably some very helpful insights. But to make it truly open? It simply won't happen. There will be too many dominating patents that can stop an SB implementation that never even contemplate SB.