UK university set to return fungi strains

In a sudden change of stance, the University of Portsmouth informed the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotec) that it wished to return the specimens to the country of origin as soon as possible.

Portsmouth's vice-chancellor John Craven said in an e-mail message in response to one from Biotec that the university "has no interest in the fungi cultures".

The only thing delaying the return is an attempt by the university "to find out what the industrial partner is interested in", said the message.

It apparently referred to earlier reports that the university had either attempted to sell or already sold some strains to pharmaceutical companies.

There was no mention of the issue of legal rights and ownership of the fungi as in previous Portsmouth correspondence.

It came as a relief to Biotec, which was at a disadvantage in legal terms because of the lack of a record of the transfer of the specimens.

Biotec's head of mycology Nigel Hywel-Jones expressed confidence that the cultures would be shipped back, citing common practice in the industry of companies not buying any specimen under ownership dispute.

He believed the companies would be willing to return the strains including those already bought, as it was not worth the huge expense to be spent in court fighting over the cultures.

The tone of the letter, according to Mr Nigel, became very "polite and encouraging", contrary to previous ones which were stern and blunt in claiming full ownership of the fungi.

The disputed fungi were collected by Gareth Jones, then a Portsmouth professor, and his team in the quest for a fungus with medical potential in the Andaman Sea in 1993. He later quit Portsmouth and joined Biotec for a short time.

Because of the lack of suitable storage facilities, Prof Jones decided to ship them to England under a gentleman's agreement that they would be returned when Thailand had its own facility.

Mr Hywel-Jones suspected that the sudden change of heart, after almost a year of pursuit by Biotec, was to avoid getting a stained reputation in the world's science community.

"It's going quite well so let's settle this quietly because it will be easier for all of us. All we can do is wait."