• Biogen Idec's Next Steps

    May 31, 2011, 00:40 AM by Michael Croft
    Boston Globe | Since George Scangos took the lead at Biogen Idec, he has cut 13% of the company's gobal workforce, dumped more than a dozen drug development projects, and halted the company's move from Cambridge to Weston, Mass.
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  • RNA Editing Paper Draws Computational Criticism

    May 26, 2011, 01:40 AM by Michael Croft
    Nature | Computational biologists are pointing out flaws in the observations of authors of a Science paper published last week that claimed that RNA editing changes bases after transcription.
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  • The Most Innovative Countries--Who's On Top?

    May 26, 2011, 01:30 AM by Michael Croft
    Forbes | In 2009, Chinese researchers published more IT papers than US researchers--the first time China has passed the US. However in Biology and Medicine, the US still published far more papers than any other country, likely due to big pharma's presense and the clinical trial infrastructure.
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  • RNA Editing Much More Widespread than Imagined

    May 20, 2011, 02:50 AM by Michael Croft
    Nature | Results published in Science yesterday suggest that the DNA-RNA-protein workflow that forms the basis of biology may not be as straightforward as we thought.
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  • NVIDIA Unveils New Flagship GPU Processor

    May 18, 2011, 01:10 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | The latest flagship GPU (graphics processing unit) processor from NVIDIA, the Tesla M2090, and a new GPU server from HP, demonstrate the growing potential of GPUs in life science applications. 
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  • Dean Charney Lures PacBio’s Schadt to Mount Sinai

    May 16, 2011, 15:25 PM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World |  Dennis Charney, Dean of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM), says he went after Pacific Biosciences CSO Eric Schadt "big time" to head MSSM’s new Institute of Genomics and Multiscale Biology and the Department of Genetics.
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  • PacBio CSO Eric Schadt to Lead ‘Multiscale Institute’ at Mount Sinai

    May 16, 2011, 06:25 AM by Michael Croft

    Bio-IT World |  Pacific Biosciences has announced a bi-coastal partnership with Mt Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM) in New York City to create the Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology. The new institute will be lead by PacBio’s chief science officer Eric Schadt, who will nonetheless retain his position at PacBio.  

     

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  • The Newest of the Next Generation Sequencers

    May 16, 2011, 00:05 AM by Michael Croft
    Technology Review | The newest sequencing company, Noblegen, is developing a "simplified version" of nanopore sequencing, says the company, that will be able to sequence a genome every 30 seconds.
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  • Broad Institute, IBM, Among EMC’s Inaugural ‘Data Heroes’

    May 12, 2011, 00:05 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | The IT group at the Broad Institute and the IBM team that developed the Watson supercomputer, are among the winners of EMC’s inaugural Data Hero Awards, announced this week at EMC World in Las Vegas.   
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  • Battelle Report Finds $800-Million Economic Impact of Human Genome Project

    May 11, 2011, 12:00 PM by Michael Croft
    Fast Company | The Human Genome Project has driven $796 billion in economic impact and generated $244 billion in total personal income, according to a new report from Battelle.  
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  • More Big Biotech Mergers On the Way

    May 11, 2011, 02:35 AM by Michael Croft
    Reuters | Major drugmakers need the growth potential of biotech now more than ever, says David Snow, even though drug executives and bankers are keeping quiet on big price tag mergers and acquisitions.
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  • DNA2.0 Offers Third-Party Genetic Constructs

    May 10, 2011, 01:55 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | DNA2.0 will announced that it will offer third-party genetic constructs through the company’s groundbreaking gene assembly and design application, Gene Designer, tomorrow at PEGS 2011 in Boston.
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  • Illumina Announces $5,000 Genome Pricing

    May 9, 2011, 17:20 PM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | Illumina is lowering the price for sequencing whole human genomes through its the Illumina Genome Network (IGN) to $5,000 per genome (for orders of ten samples or more) and just $4,000 for projects of 50 samples or more.  
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  • PacBio Shares Fall

    May 3, 2011, 04:45 AM by Michael Croft
    Motley Fool | PacBio shares fell 12% yesterday after commentary plugged Illumina and Life Technologies and hinted that GE and IBM may enter the market.
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  • BGI Shenzhen is World's Largest Sequencing Facility

    May 2, 2011, 00:00 AM by Michael Croft
    Newsweek | The world's largest genome sequencing facility is in Shenzhen, China. 128 Illumina HiSeq 2000s are in the Shenzhen BGI facility, a modest building in a gritty neighborhood surrounded by mechanics and scrap yards.
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  • Get SMRT: Pacific Biosciences Unveils Software Suite with Commercial Launch

    Apr 29, 2011, 07:20 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | Pacific Biosciences marks the long-awaited commercial shipment of its single-molecule DNA sequencer this week with a package of custom software tools. The SMRT (single molecule/real time) Analysis software suite features web-based tools and algorithms for sequence alignment and de novo assembly, and even offers information on the kinetics of nucleotide incorporation. 
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  • Myriad Genetics Buys Rules-Based Medicine

    Apr 28, 2011, 05:25 AM by Michael Croft
    Statesman | Myriad Genetics has agreed to buy Rules-Based Medicine for $80 million in cash.
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  • Oxford Nanopore Raises Another $41 Million for GridION Platform

    Apr 26, 2011, 08:05 AM by Michael Croft

    Bio-IT World | Oxford Nanopore Technologies has raised a further £25 million ($41 million) in new private funding round that will support further development for the British firm's molecular sensing and next-generation sequencing technology. 

     

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  • PatientsLikeMe Study Shows Social Media's Value as Research Tool

    Apr 25, 2011, 14:35 PM by Michael Croft
    Wall Street Journal | A new clinical trial using social networking, conducted by researchers at Patients Like Me and published in Nature Biotechnology, shows the potential value of recruiting and analyzing data from volunteers in a virtual trial at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional trials, even as it refutes the claims of previously published trial on the effects of lithium in patients with Lou Gehrig's disease.  
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  • Meet Tanuki, a 10,000-core Supercomputer in the Cloud

    Apr 25, 2011, 11:20 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | Connecticut-based Cycle Computing recently helped Genentech successfully spin up a 10,000-core supercomputer named Tanuki in the Amazon cloud, and CEO Jason Stowe sees no reason why he can't go further still.  
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