• Future Under Review for caBIG and NCI's Informatics Strategy

    Mar 20, 2012, 03:00 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | One year after the board of scientific advisors for the working group on caBIG called for a one-year moratorium on new projects, contracts, and subcontracts by caBIG, and a thorough audit of all aspects of the caBIG budget and expenditures, the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT) at the National Cancer Institute has a new interim director and is building a new game plan. George A. Komatsoulis stressed to Bio-IT World that “caBIG is continuing to operate” and, “the NCI intends to remain engaged in a substantial way in the biomedical informatics space.” 
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  • Europe and/or Bust

    Mar 20, 2012, 01:45 AM by Michael Croft
    Xconomy | Even though Europe's financial system has been on charging downhill recently, several venture firms have invested heavily in European biotech in recent months.
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  • GNS Healthcare Aids Search for Fresh Leads on CHF Readmissions

    Mar 20, 2012, 00:10 AM by Michael Croft

    Bio-IT World | Hypotheses culled from real-world outcomes data will be getting large-scale testing by Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The advanced analytics of GNS Healthcare are being applied to de-identified data from electronic health records (EHRs), pharmacy data, and administrative claims information to determine what factors contribute to adverse drug reactions and hospital readmissions in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), says David Bates, MD, director of the hospital’s Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice. 

     

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  • The Big Picture: Combining Genomics with Medicine

    Mar 19, 2012, 00:55 AM by Michael Croft
    LA Times | Michael Snyder, head of the genetics department at Stanford University, had taken personal genome sequencing one step further. With the help of a team of researchers, Snyder had his full genome sequenced and then compared those findings to frequent blood draws measuring proteins, RNA, and other chemicals in his body.
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  • After the Gravy Days: Opportunities for Biotech Growth

    Mar 19, 2012, 00:05 AM by Michael Croft
    Forbes, Wall Street Journal | In an article on biotech funding on Friday, the Wall Street Journal did not mince words: "The gravy days are over," the authors said, comparing fundraising to the housing market for sellers: tough. Forbes contributor David Shaywitz looks at where the opportunities are for disruptive growth in this environment. 
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  • Plans for the California Institute of Biomedical Research

    Mar 19, 2012, 00:05 AM by Michael Croft
    Xconomy | Last week Merck announced a $90m investment in the California Institute of Biomedical Research--Calibr--to be headed by Peter Schultz. Xconomy spoke with Schultz about the hiring process, plans for collaborations, and the Institute's relationship with Merck.
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  • Computer Scientists' Solution to a Biologist’s Problem

    Mar 16, 2012, 03:00 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND—In 2004, a New Zealand biotech approached a group of computer scientists with a biology problem. Genesis Research was sequencing the poplar tree genome, and they had a problem they estimated it would take their in house cluster about three months to solve, recalls Graham Gaylard, Real Time Genomics’ founder. A team of computer scientists solved the problem in a few weeks. 
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  • A Personal Proteome Project

    Mar 16, 2012, 02:30 AM by Michael Croft
    Personal Proteomics | A proteomics bioinformatician launches his own Personal Proteome Project with proteome sequencing by Bioproximity. He is releasing three proteomics datasets on the Proteome Cluster on the Amazon Cloud.
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  • P4 Medicine Institute Adds Partner

    Mar 16, 2012, 02:10 AM by Michael Croft
    Xconomy | Leroy Hood's P4 Medicine Institute has announced an alliance with PeaceHealth, a nonprofit Catholic health system with locations in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. 
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  • GSK, Infosys Engage Consumers Digitally

    Mar 16, 2012, 01:35 AM by Michael Croft
    InPharm | GlaxoSmithKline has chosen Infosys and Fabric Worldwide to improve how GSK engages with consumers and health care professionals in digital media. 
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  • Merck Pledges $90m to California Institute for Biomedical Research

    Mar 16, 2012, 01:05 AM by Michael Croft
    U-T San Diego | Merck has pledged $90 million to the California Institute for Biomedical Research, a private, nonprofit center to be led by Peter Schultz and located in La Jolla.
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  • HHMI Announces New Competition For 30 Investigators

    Mar 15, 2012, 14:15 PM by Michael Croft
    HHMI News | The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) will appoint up to 30 new biomedical researchers through a national open competition, the institute has announced, an investment worth some $200 million over the next five years.
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  • Aspera Speeds Data in Amazon Cloud

    Mar 15, 2012, 04:55 AM by Michael Croft
    March 15, 2012 | SAN DIEGO—The directory of Aspera’s approximately 1,400 clients reads like the Fortune 500 list. These organizations use Aspera’s proprietary software to speed up the transfer of large volumes of data, which is significantly impacted by latency and packet loss. “We’ve solved the fundamental problem of moving big data over public and private networks,” Aspera’s Daniel Kumi, director of sales and business development, told an audience at CHI’s XGen Congress last week. 
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  • Dr. Watson: IBM's Clinical Genomics Platform

    Mar 15, 2012, 03:45 AM by Michael Croft
    Smart Planet | IBM has launched an analytics platform using some of the natural language processing of Watson for use in a health care setting. 
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  • Clinical Genomics for Leukemia Patients

    Mar 15, 2012, 02:35 AM by Michael Croft
    Reuters | Two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine explore genetic profiling's role in the treatment of AML, acute mylogenous leukemia. 
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  • VCF and the Genome Analysis Toolbox

    Mar 14, 2012, 05:15 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | Inside the Box | We tend to take the extraordinary for granted. Roughly ten years ago we saw the first human genome sequence at a cost of roughly $3 billion. Now a person could have their genome sequenced in a few days for a few thousand dollars, turn around, and in a few more days compute how their sequence differs from any public sequence. This analysis might cost you just a few more dollars to rent the server. Let’s consider how one version of the bioinformatic part of this exercise might work.
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  • Broad's Heng Li Wins 2012 Benjamin Franklin Award

    Mar 14, 2012, 03:20 AM by Michael Croft

    Bio-IT World | Heng Li, a research scientist at the Broad Institute, is the winner of the 2012 Benjamin Franklin Award for Open Access in the Life Sciences. Li made essential contributions to the next generation sequencing (NGS) field with tools like SAMtools, BWA, MAQ, TreeSoft and TreeFam.  

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  • Data Rich, but Insight Poor

    Mar 14, 2012, 02:45 AM by Michael Croft
    Huffington Post | After yet another story about genomics’ impending explosion, one editor wonders why a “data rich” environment is lauded as the answer.
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  • Drug Company Helps Shift Treatment Focus

    Mar 14, 2012, 01:35 AM by Michael Croft
    Xconomy | Seattle Genetics’ first product, Adcetris, was approved by FDA in August. The drug targets a receptor in Hodgkin’s disease and anaplastic large cell lymphoma. The drug works, but the target market is small. So Seattle Genetics is launching a study to find other cancers with the same receptor.
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  • Wisconsin Stem Cell Group Wins Cycle Computing $10,000 Challenge

    Mar 13, 2012, 07:00 AM by Michael Croft
    Bio-IT World | Victor Ruotti, a computational biologist at the Morgridge Institute for Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, has won the 2012 CycleCloud BigScience Challenge. Ruotti will be awarded $10,000 of computation time on the Amazon cloud—the equivalent of eight hours on a 30,000-core cluster.
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