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From Google to Flatiron Health and the Fight Against Cancer
Aug 24, 2012, 12:50 PM by Michael CroftBusiness Insider | After selling their start-up, Invite Media, to Google for $81 million, Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg have founded a new company, Flatiron Health, aimed at devising ways to help mine clinical data and cure cancer.Full story -
Video: Nancy Kelley on the New York Genome Center
Aug 23, 2012, 09:50 AM by Michael CroftBio-IT World | Video: Nancy Kelley, founding executive director of the New York Genome Center, speaks on camera with Bio-IT World editor Kevin Davies about the rapid progress and future plans for the new genome center currently under construction in the SoHo district of Manhattan.Full story -
Klebsiella Pneumoniae Superbug Killed Six at NIH Clinical Center
Aug 22, 2012, 15:45 PM by Michael CroftHuffington Post | Scientists are reporting how next-generation sequencing identified a deadly antibiotic-resistant 'superbug' that spread alarmingly through the medical center at the NIH, ultimately claiming six lives before the source of infection was confirmed and the microbe eradicated.Full story -
deCODE Study Finds Older Dads Pass On More Genetic Mutations
Aug 22, 2012, 12:55 PM by Michael CroftWall Street Journal | According to the latest publication from Iceland's deCODE Genetics, a sequencing study reveals that older fathers pass on more new genetic mutations to their children than younger fathers, thus increasing their children's risk of autism, schizophrenia and other diseases.Full story -
QED: Hopkins Algorithm Ranks the Beauty of Drug Chemistry
Aug 21, 2012, 08:40 AM by Michael CroftBio-IT World | Companies such as Optibrium are praising the “Quantitative Estimate of Drug-Likeness” (QED) algorithm to rank chemical compounds based on their oral bioavailability, developed by the University of Dundee's Andrew Hopkins and colleagues.Full story -
Amazon Web Services Launches Amazon Glacier Archival Storage
Aug 21, 2012, 07:55 AM by Michael CroftBio-IT World | How does 1 cent/Gigabyte sound? That's the potential pricepoint of Amazon's new Amazon Glacier archival storage solution designed for data archiving and backup that is already gaining the attention of companies such as Complete Genomics.Full story -
The Biophysics of 3-D Genome Modeling
Aug 20, 2012, 15:00 PM by Michael CroftWired | Harvard University biophysicist Erez Lieberman Aiden is helping to open new windows into the study of the 3-D topological structure of chromosomes.Full story -
Halcyon Molecular Quietly Shuts Down Sequencing Operation
Aug 20, 2012, 12:50 PM by Michael CroftGigaOM | Halcyon Molecular, one of the many companies that was working on next-generation DNA sequencing technologies, has quietly ceased operations due to a shortage of funds, GigaOM reports.Full story -
Reproducibility Initiative to Increase the Value of Biomedical Research
Aug 17, 2012, 13:15 PM by Michael CroftBio-IT World | Science Exchange, the open-access publisher Public Library of Science (PLOS), and open data repository figshare, have announced the launch of the Reproductibility Initiative -- a new program to help scientists, institutions and funding agencies validate their critical research findings.Full story -
Are Drug Companies Faking an Innovation Crisis? Uh, No.
Aug 17, 2012, 09:25 AM by Michael CroftDiscover Magazine | Derek Lowe, a veteran pharmaceutical chemist and blogger, provides a withering rebuttal of a recent commentary in the British Medical Journal that argued that the “widely touted innovation crisis in pharmaceuticals is a myth.”Full story -
Thirty Groups Enter CLARITY Clinical Genome Interpretation Challenge
Aug 16, 2012, 15:25 PM by Michael CroftBio-IT World | Organizers of the CLARITY Challenge at Boston Children’s Hospital are thrilled that 30 academic and commercial organizations have entered the genome interpretation contest, although the entrant list does not include the major US/UK genome centers and consumer genomics firms.Full story -
By George: Researchers Turn Book Into DNA Code
Aug 16, 2012, 14:35 PM by Michael CroftWall Street Journal | Harvard University researchers led by George Church have encoded the text of Church's forthcoming book Regenesis into DNA and then accurately read back the text, they report in Science magazine.Full story -
Myriad Wins Gene Patent Ruling From U.S. Appeals Court
Aug 16, 2012, 14:05 PM by Michael CroftReuters | By a vote of 2-to-1, a federal appeals court has upheld its decision to uphold Myriad Genetics' patents on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast and ovarian cancer genes, after the U.S. Supreme Court told it to take another look at the hotly contested case.Full story -
The Human Microbiome: Me, Myself, Us
Aug 16, 2012, 13:50 PM by Michael CroftThe Economist | Looking at human beings not just as individuals but as ecosystems that contain trillions of collaborating and competing microbial species could change the practice of medicine.Full story -
Is the Better Benchtop DNA Sequencer Losing the Marketing War?
Aug 15, 2012, 11:30 AM by Michael CroftFull storyForbes.com | According to an analyst at Macquarie Equities Research, in the battle of benchtop sequencers the Ion Torrent PGM is outselling the Illumina MiSeq by several hundred units, even though researchers tend to favor the MiSeq's technical performance. One reason might be that the PGM is $50,000 cheaper than the MiSeq.
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How the FDA Stymies Progress -- and How to Get Around It
Aug 13, 2012, 12:00 PM by Michael CroftFull storyThe Skeptical Outsider GUEST COMMENTARY| Are cells taken from your body and then returned to it “drugs”? They are, according to a recent court ruling that granted the FDA an injunction against the developers of an adult stem cell therapy. And that doesn't sit well with Bill Frezza.
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Found in Translation: Where Do Cures Come From?
Aug 13, 2012, 11:25 AM by Michael CroftThe Guardian | In this opinion piece, Jenny Rohn asks, What's the best way of doing research? Throwing money at bright minds or trying to solve a particular problem? Or is there a third way?Full story -
Researchers Germinate Novel Approach to Big Bio Data
Aug 10, 2012, 13:50 PM by Michael CroftDatanami | C. Titus Brown heads MSU’s lab for Genomics, Evolution, and Development, which recently undertook the task of researching large collections of metagenomics data. The project was so complex that Brown’s team had to fashion a solution to solve a specific problem.Full story -
Eric Schadt: Why Biology Needs a Steve Jobs
Aug 10, 2012, 08:35 AM by Michael CroftFull storyNature Biotechnology | Eric Schadt, director of Mount Sinai's new Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology, discusses his vision to spend $100 million launching Mount Sinai to the forefront of the genomics revolution—and why he's enlisting Wall Street quants, user interface gurus and Facebook's former data whiz to do it.
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Nic Volker, Living on the Edge of Science
Aug 9, 2012, 10:10 AM by Michael CroftFull storyJS Online | Two years after exome sequencing prompted a life-saving cord blood transplant, 7-year-old Wisconsinite Nic Volker is enjoying school, real food, good health and life in general.