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The issue of consent that was at the centre of the Alder Hey scandal could pose a threat to gene patents. Academics at Sheffield 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ believe the question of gaining permission to exploit a person's DNA for commercial products has been ignored.

Deryck Beyleveld, professor of jurisprudence at Sheffield 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, said a 1998 European directive underlined the necessity of consent before a patent application could be filed on an invention based on a person's biological material, including DNA.

Margaret Llewelyn, deputy director of the Sheffield Institute for Biotechnology and Law, said that while it would be difficult for a person to know whether a patented invention was based on their genes, "it is quite possible that somebody could take a patentee to court if their consent was not obtained before the patent application was filed".

She said such a test case could have serious implications for the patenting of human genetic material, possibly resulting in further legal challenges to existing patents and a change in consent practice for future ones.

Despite this, a THES survey has found that at least 230 human genes and 1,121 non-human genes have been patented by universities in the United Kingdom, more than half in two unprecedented applications from Nottingham Trent and Glasgow universities.

The prospect of a vaccine for prostate cancer spurred Robert Rees, professor of biomedical science at Nottingham Trent, to file for two patents covering 103 human genes linked to prostate cancer in 1999.

His team identified the genes - one third of which had not been identified before - using a technique that picks out the genetic signature of the body's immune response to a tumour.

Professor Rees hopes that among these genes will be a few that will prove useful drug targets to stimulate the body's natural immunity against prostate cancer, one of the UK's biggest killers.

At Glasgow 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, a single patent application covering 902 non-human genes has recently been filed. No details are being released as commercial negotiations concerning their exploitation are in progress.

Rachel Buckley, biosciences product development manager at Derwent Information, a leading patent information provider, said UK academe seemed increasingly willing to patent genetic sequences, with a growing proportion of patents being taken in partnership with industry.

"The academic market is starting to get more clued up to the importance of getting their research patented as soon as possible," she said.

However, the Glasgow and Nottingham Trent patents are dwarfed by a recent trend for applications covering vast numbers of genetic sequences.

Last September, the Derwent GENESEQ FASTalert service processed two of the largest applications ever published, containing nearly 117,000 genetic sequences between them. They were filed by two companies, Genset and Ceres. Another European patent expected shortly will contain some 400,000 pages. This patent would stack 10m high if printed out on A4 sheets.