• HudsonAlpha, Kailos Genetics, and a Plan for Population-Wide BRCA Screening

    Diagnostics World | In a large pilot initiative with little precedent, HudsonAlpha and its genetic testing spinoff Kailos plan to offer free or steeply discounted genetic screens for susceptibility to breast cancer to thousands of women in the area of Huntsville, Alabama, including women with no known risk factors for the disease.

    Sep 9, 2015

  • NIH Commits $49M to Fusion of Genomic Data and EHRs

    FierceBiotech | National Institutes of Health grants to 10 research teams, including at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Geisinger Health System, and the Mayo Clinic, will explore ways to use genomic data in patient care through integration with electronic health records.

    Sep 8, 2015

  • Google Launches Preemptible Virtual Machines, Cycle-Broad Case Study

    Bio-IT World | Google this morning has announced the general availability of the Google Cloud Platform’s Preemptible Virtual Machines, and Cycle Computing has detailed its first preemptible VM project: a cancer gene mapping project with the Broad Institute.

    Sep 7, 2015

  • Human Embryo's First Genetic Stirrings Felt

    GEN News | Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet have measured the RNA expression of pre-implantation fertilized embryos to learn which genes are activated in the first days of human development.

    Sep 4, 2015

  • Duke School of Medicine announces new Center for Statistical Genetics and Genomics

    Duke | The School of Medicine has launched the new Center for Statistical Genetics and Genomics.

    Sep 3, 2015

  • August News and Product Briefs

    Bio-IT World | News and product briefs from around the industry, including new types of data for the Genome in a Bottle Consortium and prizes for rare disease research.

    Sep 3, 2015

  • Microsoft bulks up Azure virtual machines

    Computerworld | The new Microsoft Azure GS-series virtual machines are made for demanding database-driven workloads.

    Sep 3, 2015

  • Intel Joins Up with Cancer Centers to Build Secure Networks for Patient Data Sharing

    Bio-IT World | The Collaborative Cancer Cloud, a collaborative effort of Intel, the Knight Cancer Center, and two additional partners, will be a secure, open source system for sending large queries between clinical data centers, making it possible to share data for research and patient care while minimizing the volume of data transferred and the associated patient privacy concerns.

    Sep 2, 2015

  • Thermo Fisher Clarifies Its Vision for Sequencing with Release of Ion S5 Instruments

    Bio-IT World | Thermo Fisher Scientific, which owns the Ion Torrent line of next-generation sequencing instruments, announced today that two new sequencers are being added to its portfolio, with a special emphasis on targeted sequencing in areas like oncology, rare disease, and gene expression.

    Sep 1, 2015

  • Rgenix Scores Rare Multimillion Dollar Funding Round for New York Biotech Scene

    Xconomy | The startup company has raised $8 million in new capital to develop drugs based on a discovery program that searches for targets by measuring microRNA expression in cancer.

    Aug 31, 2015

  • PrecisionFDA to Test Accuracy of Genomic Analysis Tools

    Bio-IT World | The FDA has contracted with DNAnexus to build an open web portal where researchers working on new genomic tests can evaluate their computational workflows, testing them on real and simulated DNA data and comparing them against industry standards.

    Aug 27, 2015

  • Florida Experience with Scripps Illustrates Difficulty of Building a Biotech Cluster from the Top Down

    Los Angeles Times | Jeb Bush's presidential run has brought renewed attention to one of the headline achievements of his tenure as governor of Florida: luring a new Scripps Research Institute campus to the state.

    Aug 26, 2015

  • White House Calls for Contributions to Precision Medicine Initiative

    HealthIT Analytics | White House Chief Data Scientist DJ Patil and Precision Medicine Initiative Project Manager Stephanie Devaney have issued a call for ideas to implement the national Precision Medicine Initiative, from new ways to engage patients to new APIs that make health data more accessible.

    Aug 25, 2015

  • Roche Buys Kapa to Boost Sequencing Technology Offering

    BioPharma Reporter | Roche has added technology to tailor enzymes for specific applications in next-generation DNA and RNA sequencing through the acquisition of Kapa Biosystems.

    Aug 25, 2015

  • Causation in Context: Brendan Frey's Vision for Deep Genomics

    Bio-IT World | The idea is beautiful: read the text of DNA and understand the workings of the body. Brendan Frey isn’t claiming it’s simple, but with advanced machine learning and expertise in cell and genome biology, Deep Genomics is chasing the vision. And it might just change everything.

    Aug 21, 2015

  • Synthetic Biologists Put Artificial Life Forms to Work

    MIT Technology Review | Scripps Research Institute spinoff Synthorx, which engineers organisms with two extra artificial DNA letters, is just one of several ventures trying to find practical applications for an expanded genetic code.

    Aug 19, 2015

  • Illumina, Friends Launch Helix: Digital Hub for Genetic Information

    New York Times | Helix--a new genomics analytics venture--is to launch today with $100 million in funding from Illumina, Warburg Pincus, and Sutter Hill Ventures. Illumina's Jay Flatley will serve as chairman.

    Aug 18, 2015

  • Beacon Project Cracks the Door for Genomic Data Sharing

    Bio-IT World | Deep-seated concerns about privacy and security, combined with a tangled variety of data structures and perverse incentives to hoard genomic data, have hindered the ability and willingness of research groups to share DNA data with one another for more open and collaborative science. As a flagship effort of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, the Beacon Project is toying with a single, simple query that is forming the basis for more exchange of data across institutional borders.

    Aug 14, 2015

  • China’s Tianhe-1A Shut Down After Tianjin Blast

    WSJ |The fallout from the massive explosion in Tianjin has reached one of China's supercomputers. The National Supercomputing Center has shut down the Tianhe-1A after the building it was housed in was damaged.

    Aug 14, 2015

  • Is Google's Switch To Alphabet Good For Healthcare? Definitely Maybe

    Forbes | In the past, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have been pretty clear that they view the company's efforts in healthcare as a sideline. "Generally, health is just so heavily regulated," Brin said at a Khosla ventures fireside chat in 2014. "It's just a painful business to be in. It's [...]

    Aug 11, 2015