[texthompson]

Michael Eisen is a professor at Berkeley, founder of the Public Library of Science and pioneered the use of microarrays for studying gene expression. This blog post is in response to the recent controversy about CRISPR, in particular Eric Lander's article called "The Heroes of CRISPR."

[elliotpage]

He is also a firebrand who does not care who he upsets, which works for both good and ill. (I have worked with Mike before, although in a distant capacity.) This explains why he can sometimes appear highly quixotic.

[Q6T46nT668w6i3m]

> Michael Eisen is a professor at Berkeley

and friend and colleague of Jennifer Doudna.

What’s the path forward? Is labeling Lander a “villain” useful?

[geofft]

He mentions that very clearly in the article, and also makes it clear what he stands (and does not stand) to gain financially from Lander's article being discredited.

It's a very provocative title, but the policy recommendation in the article—that we stop issuing Nobel prizes and patents to individuals when discoveries happened over a long process—is pretty fair. And he does credit Lander for acknowledging all the scientists that predated both of their universities' work.

[Q6T46nT668w6i3m]

I don’t disagree. But I’m asking, what should happen in the next few months?

Is reconciliation possible? What would it take?

[Blahah]

It's 'useful' in countering an image that people who only read Lander's paper might come away with, and useful in drawing attention to the problem he (Mike) perceives.

Whether any of this is useful in a broader sense is unclear, but we are almost certainly seeing the most important story in history of biology for this generation unfolding before us.

[onewaystreet]

It's useful when you are pushing an agenda.