[Mind-numbed Robot]

The study then identified a strain, which the academics have patented, that can and showed that it has probiotic and immunomodulatory properties, and can reduce pro-inflammatory responses to pathogens associated with IBD.

You can patent bacteria?? Wow! I guess most anything can be patented then.

[neverdem]

"The study then identified a strain, which the academics have patented, that can and showed that it has probiotic and immunomodulatory properties, and can reduce pro-inflammatory responses to pathogens associated with IBD."

You can patent bacteria?? Wow! I guess most anything can be patented then.

Seeing is believing.

Identification and Characterisation of an Iron-Responsive Candidate Probiotic

Competing interests: TC and JB have a patent applied (GB 1112487.2) for "A Streptococcus thermophilus isolate that can increase growth rate in response to increased iron availability." The bacterial strain has been deposited as a patent deposit in a culture collection ahead of filing and will be made freely available to researchers by the authors. The authors confirm that they will adhere to the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The authors confirm that they have no other competing interests.

With PLoS, Public Library of Science, journals, if you have the title within quotation marks, BINGO, you have a FReebie.