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12 

ASSOCIATION FOR MOLECULAR PATHOLOGY v. 
MYRIAD GENETICS, INC.
 
Opinion of the Court 

BRCA2  genes.  The  location  and  order  of  the  nucleotides 
existed in nature before Myriad found them.  Nor did Myr-
iad  create  or  alter  the  genetic  structure  of  DNA.    In-
stead, Myriad’s principal contribution was uncovering the 
precise  location  and  genetic  sequence  of  the  BRCA1 
and  BRCA2  genes  within  chromosomes  17  and  13.  The 
question is whether this renders the genes patentable.

Myriad  recognizes  that  our  decision  in  Chakrabarty  is 
central  to  this  inquiry.  Brief  for  Respondents  14,  23–27. 
In Chakrabarty, scientists added four plasmids to a bacte-
rium, which enabled it to break down various components
of  crude  oil.  447  U. S.,  at  305,  and  n. 1.    The  Court  held 
that the modified bacterium was patentable.  It explained
that  the  patent  claim  was  “not  to  a  hitherto  unknown 
natural  phenomenon,  but  to  a  nonnaturally  occurring 
manufacture  or  composition  of  matter—a  product  of  hu-
man ingenuity ‘having a distinctive name, character [and] 
use.’ ”  Id.,  at  309–310  (quoting  Hartranft  v.  Wiegmann, 
121  U.  S.  609,  615  (1887);  alteration  in  original).    The 
Chakrabarty bacterium was new “with markedly different
characteristics  from  any  found  in  nature,”  447  U. S.,  at
310,  due  to  the  additional  plasmids  and  resultant  “capac- 
ity  for  degrading  oil.”  Id.,  at  305,  n. 1.    In  this  case,  by 
contrast,  Myriad  did  not  create  anything.    To  be  sure,  it 
found  an  important  and  useful  gene,  but  separating  that 
gene from its surrounding genetic material is not an act of
invention.
  Groundbreaking,  innovative,  or  even  brilliant  discovery 
does not by itself satisfy the §101 inquiry.  In Funk Broth-
ers  Seed  Co.  v.  Kalo  Inoculant  Co.,  333  U. S.  127  (1948),
this Court considered a composition patent that claimed a
mixture  of  naturally  occurring  strains  of  bacteria  that
helped  leguminous  plants  take  nitrogen  from  the  air  and 
fix it in the soil.  Id., at 128–129.  The ability of the bacte-
ria to fix nitrogen was well known, and farmers commonly
“inoculated” their crops with them to improve soil nitrogen