Bio-IT World Podcast | Sarah Gray of the American Association of Tissue Banks is featured on this podcast from Cambridge Healthtech Institute in preparation for the Leaders in Biobanking Congress. Topics include expectations about the process of donating post-mortem tissue for biospecimen research, possible process improvements to better serve patients, and more.

Bio-IT World | At a plenary session this morning in Orlando, Florida, the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) announced a new vision and five-year strategic plan: GA4GH Connect, aiming to drive uptake of GA4GH standards and frameworks for genomic data discovery, analysis, and interpretation in order to enable responsible sharing of clinical-grade genomic data by 2022.

Bio-IT World Brief | Oxford Nanopore sequencing technology is now available in China. The long-read, real-time, portable MinION sequencer is now being used by researchers across China, who are working on myriad DNA sequencing applications including: pathogen research, human genetics, plant genetics, animal genetics, and metagenomics.

Bio-IT World Brief | Illumina Ventures announced today that it has raised $230 million for its first fund. The balance of the funds have been raised from a mix of corporate, institutional, sovereign, and individual investors.

Bio-IT World Contributed Commentary | Research organizations are aware of the potential for cloud technologies to increase efficiency, cut costs, and reduce time to market. In the wake of the recent Equifax breach, the latest in a seemingly endless string of security incidents, organizations want to ensure they are protecting their assets and minimizing potential liabilities.