It is common practice for scientists at different institutions to exchange these materials with each other. In fact, many journals insist that the person who first publishes such a material must share it with other investigators. Such exchanges can pose problems, as the materials may contain commercially valuable intellectual property. This may be true even if the material itself is not patentable. As one example, if a gene produces a predisposition to a certain disease, cells or animals containing that gene may be the key to developing valuable diagnostic and therapeutic agents.
Materials containing DNA are likely to be self-replicating.
In other words, a minute amount of the material can serve as a template or factory for the production of unlimited amounts of identical material. This presents special problems. There are many variations on the theme, but we will refer to all of these agreements as MTAs. We know that MTAs are sometimes seen as an impediment to research progress, especially when they delay the receipt of needed samples. This simple, standardized MTA has been signed by over 130 academic institutions.