• The Utility of Cloud Computing

    Nov 16, 2011, 01:45 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World |In September 2011, we held our first standalone conference on the topic. Experts—users and vendors alike—gathered for two days of sharing insights and progress. The takeaway was that more and more users were comfortable with the flexibility, cost, and even security afforded by the cloud.
    Full story

  • Video: James Watson on Whole Genome Sequencing

    Nov 15, 2011, 02:00 AM by Michael Croft

    Bio-IT World | The complete video recording of the opening plenary session of last month's International Congress of Human Genetics, entitled “Whole Genome Sequencing: To do it or not to do it?”, featuring Nobel laureate Jim Watson and moderated by Bio-IT World's Kevin Davies, has just been posted. 

     

    Full story

  • BGI Releases Updated Bioinformatics Software and Datasets

    Nov 14, 2011, 15:50 PM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | BGI used the opening of its annual international genomics conference, ICG-VI in Shenzhen, China, to announce the launch of new bioinformatics analysis software and pipelines, cloud-based solutions, and a new freely accessible database for large-scale data. 
    Full story

  • New Top500 List Expands Distance Between Top Supercomputers

    Nov 14, 2011, 08:00 AM by Michael Croft
    Top500 | Top500 released their most updated list at Supercomputing 2011 (SC11) today. The order of the top ten systems has not changed since June, but Japan's "K Computer", at the number one spot, completed a build out to make it four times as powerful as China's Tianhe-1A system in the number two position.
    Full story

  • Bill Gates on Pharma

    Nov 11, 2011, 02:00 AM by Michael Croft
    Forbes | Bill Gates may be an IT guru, but he also has a unique perspective on Big Pharma, thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
    Full story

  • High Performance Computing has Heterogeneous Future

    Nov 11, 2011, 01:15 AM by Michael Croft

    Bio-IT World | A new IDC report, sponsored by NVIDIA, takes a look at the upcoming era of exascale computing. To break the next speed barrier, IDC sees "heterogeneous computing" as the essential trend.   

     

    Full story

  • SNaPshot Test IDs Key Gene Mutations in Lung Cancer

    Nov 10, 2011, 01:30 AM by Michael Croft
    Guardian | Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a test called SNaPshot to identify identify mutations at more than 50 sites in 14 key genes in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), that is now being offered to patients with a range of other cancers.
    Full story

  • Biotech Stock Buyback Helps Raise Prices

    Nov 9, 2011, 03:45 AM by Michael Croft
    LA Times | Amgen spurs investors with a buyback program. The biotech planned to buy back $5 billion of its shares, about 10%, over the next month.  
    Full story

  • Hardware Appliances for Hadoop

    Nov 8, 2011, 01:40 AM by Michael Croft
    Wired | Recently, Dell, Oracle, and EMC have all unveiled what they bill as specialized hardware appliances for Hadoop, the open source software platform that analyzes data by splitting it up and distributing it across a cluster. Now NetApp has joined the fray with the NetApp Open Solution for Hadoop.
    Full story

  • Japanese K Computer Passes 10 Petaflops

    Nov 4, 2011, 00:05 AM by Michael Croft
    HPC Wire | Fujitsu and RIKEN have announced that their "K computer" has passed the 10 petaflops mark. The system was partially completed when it topped the Top500 list in June with a Linpack result of 8.16 petaflops. The completed system has reportedly reached 10.51 petaflops on Linpack. 
    Full story

  • Genome Center for Gotham

    Nov 3, 2011, 09:00 AM by Michael Croft

    Bio-IT World |Prior to the formal announcement of NYGC on November 3 in Manhattan, Kelley gave her first in-depth interview with Bio•IT World editor Kevin Davies and talked about the extraordinary effort to bring a world-class genome center to the Big Apple, and what it means for the New York scientific and medical establishment.

    Full story

  • New York Genome Center Unveiled in Manhattan

    Nov 3, 2011, 08:50 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | A remarkable public-private coalition of universities, medical centers, technology partners and philanthropists under the direction of Nancy Kelley has created the New York Genome Center (NYGC), which was officially unveiled in a ceremony in Manhattan this morning. NYGC is poised to have an immense impact on New York science, and will quickly become one of the largest genome centers in the U.S.
    Full story

  • Cornell Announces Red Cloud Computing Service

    Nov 2, 2011, 01:15 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | Cornell University has announced an on-demand research computing service called Red Cloud available to researchers at Cornell and other academic institutions for a set subscription fee. 
    Full story

  • Japanese Genomics Organization Chooses New SGI HPC System

    Nov 1, 2011, 06:05 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | The Institute for Chemical Research (ICR) at Kyoto University in Japan, has selected an SGI UV 1000 high performance computing and storage system to advance its genomics research and enable GenomeNet, a network of database and computational services for genome research and related research areas in biomedical sciences, operated by the Kyoto University Bioinformatics Center.
    Full story

  • Max Planck Institute Heads to South America

    Oct 31, 2011, 02:00 AM by Michael Croft
    Nature News | Germany's Max Planck Institute has opened a new research facility in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The branch will focus mainly on neurosciences, drug desing, cellular plasticity and stem cell research.
    Full story

  • Archon Genomics X Prize Revamps Rules Prior to 2013 Kick Off

    Oct 26, 2011, 10:00 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World |  The Archon Genomics X Prize, which offers a $10 million purse for a significant breakthrough in the whole genome sequencing of 100 genomes, has announced adjustments to its rules, criteria, and timing, as well as officially welcoming a major new sponsor – Medco Health Solutions. The new-look competition will kick off in January 2013, with entrants having 30 days to sequence the genomes of 100 centenarians for less than $1,000 apiece.
    Full story

  • Layoffs Looming as Illumina Restructures

    Oct 26, 2011, 08:00 AM by Michael Croft

    Sign On San Diego |  Amid news that Illumina plans to restructure its business because of slowing sales, setting the stage for layoffs at the leading NGS instrument maker in the wake of disappointing sales figures, the company has also revealed plans to create a new unit devoted to forging business with hospitals and physicians. “We really need to create a much stronger focus on customers that are using our technologies in clinical applications,” said CEO Jay Flatley. 

     

    Full story

  • Pistoia Alliance Announces NGS Data Compression Algorithm Competition

    Oct 25, 2011, 06:10 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | The Pistoia Alliance of more than 50 life science companies, vendors, publishers, and academic groups, has launched a competition to find the best algorithm for compressing next-generation sequencing (NGS) data, with a $15,000 first prize. 
    Full story

  • Genia’s Nanopore/Microchip Technology Gains Life Technologies’ Support

    Oct 24, 2011, 03:00 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World EXCLUSIVE | From a chance meeting in a Silicon Valley Starbucks, Genia is the latest start-up vying to make an impact in the increasingly crowded field of nanopore sequencing, featuring a novel microchip platform that has already caught the attention of one of the giants in next-generation sequencing.
    Full story

  • Cycle Computing Offers $10,000 Cloud Prize in BigScience Challenge

    Oct 20, 2011, 11:45 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | Building on some positive industry and media response earlier this year to its success in spinning up a 30,000-core supercomputer in the Amazon Cloud, Cycle Computing is planning to offer $10,000 prize in computing time “to help researchers answer questions that will help humanity.”
    Full story