PATENTING BIOINFORMATICS INNOVATIONS: EMERGING TRENDS AND CHALLENGES IN THE UNITED STATES.

Bioinformatics tools and techniques are useful not only to manage and analyze vast amount of raw biological data generated from various genomics research but also to understand the phenomena of biological system at the macromolecular level. The development of bioinformatics has come a long way from DNA sequencing tools of the Human Genome Project (HGP) era to DNA circuits and programmable synthetic biological devices in the twenty first century. The present article attempts to analyze and reveal the emerging trends in bioinformatics and computational biology research and innovation and challenges in patenting them under the current US patent regime.