A landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to block patents on naturally occurring genes is being met with enthusiasm from doctors, researchers and clinicians in the Texas Medical Center, who say the ruling will open up opportunities for biotech projects here and could offer less expensive life-saving tests. Dr. Howard Brody, director of the Institute for Medical Humanities at UTMB, says the blame for the fight over gene patenting that was waged all the way to the Supreme Court lies at the doors of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which should have been more diligent in handing out patents. He says the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office may be guilty of misapplying a principal from a 1980 Supreme Court ruling that found a scientifically invented bacterium could be patented.