Bio-IT World | Hong Kong is blanketed by a thick haze in early September and the sky matches the concrete buildings in the Tai Po Industrial Estate in Hong Kong’s New Territories. The estate is older than the Science and Technology Park, but here BGI is free to own the building. I don’t realize we’ve arrived at BGI until my guide points out the small sign, hanging low by the front door. A blue tarp on the top corner of the building suggests that signage more prominent and appropriate—given that this will soon be the largest genome sequencing center in the world—is on the way.

Bio-IT World | This special issue of Bio•IT World contains a series of stories and essays that provide some useful perspectives on the march to the $1,000 genome, which some regard as a medical imperative and others a grand illusion.

Bio-IT World | GATC Biotech announced today that it will be purchasing the PacBio RS platform for planned installation of early 2011. The new PacBio RS will be the fifth sequencing technology for GATC Biotech. 

Nature News | Researchers in China announced that they have received grants of roughly $30 million per year--soon to double--for the Chinese Human Proteome Project.

Xconomy | Lee Hartwell, the 70-year-old Nobel laureate and former president of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, wants to change the way the world thinks about personalized medicine and help boost scientific education among young children.

Bio-IT World Exclusive | In part II of this exclusive interview, Toby Bloom, the Broad Institute's head of informatics for the production sequencing group, talks about coping with the next-generation sequencing “data deluge' and the potential of the Cloud.

Bio-IT World | In Part I of a two-part exclusive interview, Rob Nicol and Chad Nusbaum share some of the keys to the Broad Institute’s sequencing success with Bio-IT World chief editor Kevin Davies. (In Part II tomorrow, we talk to Toby Bloom, the Broad’s director of informatics.) 

Bio-IT World |  The first upgrade to the FACTS simulation tool, co-developed by Tessella and Berry Consultants, increases the proportion of clinical studies that can benefit from simulation of the design up to about 85%.

Bio-IT World | At a landmark press conference in Shenzhen, China, today, BGI and Merck signed a long-term "working relationship” that could mark a turning point in the fortunes of BGI and big pharma's embrace of next-generation sequencing technology.

Bio-IT World | The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) announced more than $18 million in grants yesterday to drive development of third generation DNA sequencing technologies to bring the cost of sequencing a human genome to $1,000.

HHMI | New computational tools can trace the complex branching shapes of neurons up to 10 times faster than previous methods. The algorithms were designed by competitors in the DIADEM Challenge.

Boston Business Journal | Pfizer plans to acquire FoldRx, a Massachusettes-based biotech whose lead drug candidate has orphan drug designation in both the US and EU. The acquisition follows Pfizer's creation of an Orphan and Genetic Diseases Research Unit earlier this year. 

Bio-IT World | Data storage company Isilon is introducing what it claims is the industry’s first and only unified scale-out storage platform for the enterprise, by integrating the iSCSI protocol into its OneFS operating system.