-
Jolly Jay Flatley Ushers in Another Big Year for Illumina
Jan 12, 2016, 14:40 PM by Michael CroftBio-IT World | The JP Morgan Healthcare Conference comes but once a year. Now it’s here, now it’s here, and Illumina CEO Jay Flatley has honored his seasonal tradition by releasing a new next-generation sequencer in his address to investors.Full story -
Certara Launches a Strategic Drug Development Consulting Company in China
Jan 12, 2016, 09:44 AM by Michael CroftPRINCETON, NJ - Jan 12, 2016 - Certara®, the global biosimulation technology-enabled drug development company, today announced the launch of Certara Strategic Consulting China in ShanghaiFull story -
Illumina Spinoff GRAIL to Trial Liquid Biopsies for Early Detection of Cancer
Jan 11, 2016, 11:10 AM by Michael CroftBio-IT World | Illumina, the dominant manufacturer of DNA sequencing technology, has formed a spinoff company called GRAIL to experiment with a pan-cancer blood test, an undertaking for which hundreds of thousands of patients may be enrolled in clinical studies.Full story -
You're Probably Not Mostly Microbes
Jan 8, 2016, 14:19 PM by Michael CroftThe Atlantic | A new study revises the most famous "fact" about the microbiome: that microbes outnumber human cells in the body ten to one.Full story -
BioMérieux and Illumina Use Whole Genome Sequencing to Monitor Hospital Infections
Jan 8, 2016, 13:00 PM by Michael CroftBio-IT World | In partnership with Illumina, multinational diagnostics company bioMérieux has launched EpiSeq, the first commercial system to monitor outbreaks in hospitals by sequencing and analyzing the whole genomes of bacteria.Full story -
Moderna Signs Deal with Contract Researcher to Bring mRNA Therapies Into Clinical Trials
Jan 8, 2016, 10:12 AM by Michael CroftFierceBiotech | Moderna Therapeutics, a high-profile private biotech with scores of preclinical projects, is finally moving toward human trials, recruiting one of the world's largest CROs to help get its much-hyped pipeline moving.Full story -
A Precision Medicine Blitz in China
Jan 6, 2016, 09:38 AM by Michael CroftNature News | A new push by the Chinese government for research in genomic health is expected to dwarf the U.S. Precision Medicine Initiative in both scale and funding, although China's shortage of physicians and drug development capacity may make it hard to capitalize on new discoveries.Full story -
Editas Medicine Files for CRISPR Technology's First IPO
Jan 5, 2016, 12:15 PM by Michael CroftBio-IT World | Still facing a looming patent dispute over its most basic intellectual property, Editas Medicine registered with the SEC for an initial public offering this week, making it the first therapeutics company based on CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to go public.Full story -
Who Can Host Biology's Big Data?
Jan 4, 2016, 11:41 AM by Michael CroftForbes | The National Institutes of Health expects to shortly phase out its funding for the maintenance of databases like Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man, leaving the future of these invaluable resources for the life sciences uncertain.Full story -
December News and Product Briefs
Dec 30, 2015, 08:05 AM by Michael CroftBio-IT World | The latest products and announcements from around the industry, including the tranSMART Foundation absorbing the OpenBEL project, and an expanded organs-on-chips program at Merck.Full story -
Social Problems due to Drug Abuse Driving Substance Abuse Treatment Market
Dec 30, 2015, 03:16 AM by Michael CroftALBANY, NY, UNITED STATES - Dec 30, 2015 - Substance abuse refers to the use of psychoactive substances, which include alcohol and illicit drugs, to the extent that it is harmful or hazardousFull story -
Silicon Valley's Dubious Biotech Investments
Dec 29, 2015, 13:14 PM by Michael CroftThe Verge | Verge Editors Elizabeth Lopatto and Ben Popper discuss high-tech investors' vulnerability to shaky claims in the life sciences.Full story -
The Fuzzy Definition of 'GMO'
Dec 28, 2015, 11:15 AM by Michael CroftGrist | The tangled history of agricultural technology, and nature's dazzling array of genetic interventions, make it intractably hard to come up with a crisp, consistent meaning for "genetically modified organism."Full story -
Wellcome Trust Introduces Mykrobe Predictor for Genetic Analysis of Antibiotic Resistance
Dec 23, 2015, 14:30 PM by Michael CroftBio-IT World | A large team of researchers led by Zamin Iqbal of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics has published a new software tool that rapidly identifies antibiotic-resistant bacteria using DNA data, beginning with studies of Staphylococcus aureus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis.Full story -
Foundation Medicine, UnitedHealthcare Sign Lung Cancer Profiling Agreement
Dec 22, 2015, 17:00 PM by Michael CroftBio-IT World News Brief | Foundation Medicine has signed an agreement with UnitedHealthcare to offer FoundationOne, a comprehensive genomic profiling assay for solid tumors, to patients with metastatic stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Full story -
Triumph of the Public Cloud
Dec 22, 2015, 15:44 PM by Michael CroftWired | A decade after the launch of Amazon Web Services, there has been a seismic shift in attitudes toward the transfer of computing to cloud services.Full story -
OrbiMed Launches New VC Fund with $950m
Dec 21, 2015, 16:00 PM by Michael CroftFull storyBio-IT World News Brief | OrbiMed, a leading investment firm focused on the healthcare sector, today announced the closing of its next venture capital fund, OrbiMed Private Investments VI, LP, with $950 million in limited partner commitments.
-
New Persephone Technology to Be Demonstrated at Genome Conference
Dec 21, 2015, 12:42 PM by Michael CroftTHOUSAND OAKS, CA - Dec 21, 2015 - Ceres, Inc. (NASDAQ: CERE), an agricultural biotechnology company, today announced that its genomics team will demonstrate new features of its Persephone software technology at the upcoming International Plant and Animal Genome Conference in San Diego, CalifFull story -
U.S. Department of Energy Awards $13.5M to Enhance Sorghum for Biofuel
Dec 21, 2015, 10:40 AM by Michael CroftST. LOUIS, MO, UNITED STATES - Dec 21, 2015 - The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center announced that it will be part of a major collaborative research project to improve sorghum's productivity under resource-limited conditionsFull story -
GENEWIZ Acquires the Genomic Services Business of Beckman Coulter
Dec 21, 2015, 10:05 AM by Michael CroftSOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ, UNITED STATES - Dec 21, 2015 - Leading global genomics service provider, GENEWIZ, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the genomic services business of Beckman Coulter, which delivers expert genomics sequencing solutions to healthcare businesses, as well as academic and government institutions worldwide (GS)Full story