The US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that human genes are not patentable, but synthetic DNA, or cDNA, is patent eligible because it does not occur naturally. Its decision had broad implications for the biotech industry and for Myriad Genetics, in particular, whose patents on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes were at the center of the case. The ruling runs counter to the US Patent and Trademark Office's policy of granting patents on isolated gene sequences.

The US investment in the Human Genome Project and the ensuing federal funding for genome science has reaped massive economic benefits, according to a new study from Battelle. It found that genomics-related fields from biomedicine to energy and agriculture have had a $965 billion impact on the US economy, stemming from a total of $14.5 billion in federal investments between 1988 and 2012. Genomics-related funding has yielded a $65 return on every $1 invested.