Gene Jockeys

Gene Jockeys is a scholarly and fascinating account of the early days of the biotechnology industry. With lots of technical detail this should appeal to the serious molecular biologists and biotechnologists interested in the roots of their discipline. -- Sir Richard Roberts, New England Biolabs; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine Following the twists and turns in the experimental paths that yielded the first recombinant drugs, Rasmussen offers a clear view of the difficulties encountered in the application of the new science of recombinant DNA to bacterial synthesis for drug production. His thorough search of legal documents relating to patents enriches this account of the race to market. A tour de force . -- Robert Olby, author of Path to the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA A fascinating and highly entertaining account-essential not just for historians of business and the life sciences, but also for intellectual property scholars. -- Graham Dutfield, University of Leeds, author of Intellectual Property Rights and the Life Science Industries This is a remarkably original account of the first two decades of the biotechnology industry, when molecular geneticists from academia joined with venture capitalists and hungry investors to form smart and nimble companies. Rasmussen tells a rich and eye-opening story, spotlighting how the first generation of biotechnologists made their firms vital outposts of academic culture and how the firms achieved and marketed blockbuster drugs. In all, an even-handed, informative, and important book. -- Daniel Kevles, Yale University; author of In the Name of Eugenics, The Physicists, and The Baltimore Case Gene Jockeys offers an insightful, comprehensive, and exciting story that faithfully evokes the earliest days of modern biotechnology. An outstanding read for scientists and anyone interested in biotech. -- John Shine AO, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney Although some would assign more societal benefit and importance to the early products of biotech than Rasmussen, the stories of the competition between teams of scientists to produce the first set of human proteins as therapeutics are both exciting and revealing of the faults of mankind. -- Phillip Sharp, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine

This book captures that heady, fleeting moment when a biologist could expect to do great science through the private sector and be rewarded with both wealth and scientific acclaim.The biotech arena emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, when molecular biology, one of the fastest-moving areas of basic science in the twentieth century, met the business world. Gene Jockeys is a detailed study of the biotech projects that led to five of the first ten recombinant DNA drugs to be approved for medical use in the United States: human insulin, human growth hormone, alpha interferon, erythropoietin, and tissue plasminogen activator. Drawing on corporate documents obtained from patent litigation, as well as interviews with the ambitious biologists who called themselves gene jockeys, historian Nicolas Rasmussen chronicles the remarkable, and often secretive, work of the scientists who built a new domain between academia and the drug industry in the pursuit of intellectual rewards and big payouts. In contrast to some who critique the rise of biotechnology, Rasmussen contends that biotech was not a swindle, even if the public did pay a very high price for the development of what began as public scientific resources. Within the biotech enterprise, the work of corporate scientists went well beyond what biologists had already accomplished within universities, and it accelerated the medical use of the new drugs by several years. In his technically detailed and readable narrative, Rasmussen focuses on the visible and often heavy hands that construct and maintain the markets in public goods like science. He looks closely at how science follows money, and vice versa, as researchers respond to the pressures and potential rewards of commercially viable innovations. In biotechnology, many of those engaged in crafting markets for genetically engineered drugs were biologists themselves who were in fact trying to do science. This book captures that heady, fleeting moment when a biologist could expect to do great science through the private sector and be rewarded with both wealth and scientific acclaim.