CAMBIA

Cambia is an independent, international non-profit institute based in Canberra, Australia. Cambia aims, through its BiOS (Biological Open Source) licenses and technologies, as well as its patent search engine and tutorials, the Patent Lens, to foster transparency, collaboration and innovation, especially in the life sciences.

Established in 1992 by Dr. Richard Jefferson, Cambia was originally an agricultural research institute. Two of the major achievements to come out of its laboratories were TransBacter, a work-around for the creation of transgenic plants without using the highly patented Agrobacterium genus, and the glucuronidase (GUS)-based transformation vectors, which in contrast to for-profit biotechnology companies are available without charge upon signing the open-source-inspired BiOS MTA (materials transfer agreement) (see BiOS).

The major work of the Patent Lens includes the free, full-text patent search engine, the Patent Lens, as well as several patent landscapes on important biotechnologies such as Agrobacterium, BASTA (a common herbicide) resistance, the human genome and the human telomerase gene. New patent landscapes are in the process of being created.

See also

* Biological Innovation for Open Society
* Patent Lens

External links

* [http://www.cambia.org/ CAMBIA]
* [http://www.bios.net/ BiOS]
* [http://www.patentlens.net/daisy/patentlens/patentlens.html/ Patent Lens]