• Smithsonian jumps into biodiversity genomics with new institute

    Science/AAAS News | The Smithsonian Institution plans to launch a virtual biodiversity genomics institute to catalog DNA from the earth's flora and fauna. To coordinate biodiversity genomics, the Smithsonian hopes to raise $100 million over the next 10 years.

    Dec 12, 2014

  • Annai Hosts International Cancer Genome Consortium Data

    Bio-IT World | Data generated by the International Cancer Genome Consortium, including whole genomes, exomes, and RNA-seq, will now be made available to researchers through Annai Systems' ShareSeq platform.

    Dec 11, 2014

  • Intriguing Results for Nanopore Sequencing from Defunct Roche-IBM Partnership

    Bio-IT World | Researchers from Arizona State University and IBM’s TJ Watson Research Center present the development of a solid state tunneling device sensitive to nucleotides. The next steps may reveal the direction in which nanopore sequencing is heading.

    Dec 9, 2014

  • BaseHealth, Labco Sign European Partnership

    Bio-IT World | BaseHealth of Redwood City, Calif., has announced a partnership with the European diagnostics network Labco to deploy BaseHealth’s Genophen platform to thousands of physicians across Europe

    Dec 8, 2014

  • Druggability: An Underappreciated Issue in Translating the Human Genome Into Therapeutics

    Omics! Omics! Blog | Keith Robison: "It's sobering to think how few of the targets of current therapeutics could be found from genomics data."

    Dec 8, 2014

  • Study finds support for newborn genetic testing among parents

    Boston Herald | Most parents would like to have their newborns genetically tested for medical conditions and disorders, according to a new study published this wee

    Dec 8, 2014

  • Controversy Over CRISPR Patents

    MIT Technology Review | As Editas Medicine claims exclusive licenses to use key intellectual property around the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system, many of the innovators of this technology are disputing patent priority, or even the right to patent foundational CRISPR engineering techniques.

    Dec 5, 2014

  • MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital Team Up on New Microbiome-Based Therapies

    Bio-IT World | Eric Alm, co-director of the new Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics at MIT and MGH, talks microbial therapies, new regulatory models, and the public appeal of our microbes.

    Dec 4, 2014

  • Pharma Multi-Millionaire Gives 100 Million To University of North Carolina

    Forbes | Former pharmaceutical executive Fred Eshelman has pledged $100 million to spur innovation at the UNC's pharmacy school.

    Dec 4, 2014

  • IP Deals Shed Light on Editas Medicine’s Strategy for CRISPR Gene Therapies

    Bio-IT World | Editas Medicine, a Cambridge company tackling therapies based on CRISPR gene editing, announced three intellectual property licensing deals with major research institutions this week, gaining exclusive access to key CRISPR-related technologies.

    Dec 2, 2014

  • Hackers Target Pharma, Health Care Companies

    New York Times | A hacking ring nicknamed Fin4 has been targeting pharma and healthcare companies by hacking into email accounts.

    Dec 2, 2014

  • Nature Makes Full Text Papers Available Via ReadCube

    Nature News | Nature Publishing Group announced this morning that all of its research papers will now be free to read via ReadCube, a proprietary screen-view format that can be annotated but not copied, printed, or downloaded

    Dec 2, 2014

  • What Pharma Recruiters Are Looking for in Asia

    in-PharmaTechnologist | Singaporean companies are looking for scientists, while China and India need execs - but don't count on moving to Japan, says jobs expert Doris Chin.

    Dec 2, 2014

  • Holiday Reading for a CRISPR Autumn Day

    Bio-IT World | This year has seen the rapid rise of CRISPR gene editing, for which the biotech industry has every reason to be thankful. Intellia Therapeutics, based in Cambridge, Mass., is the third CRISPR company to spring up in the last twelve months, joining Editas Medicine also in Cambridge, and CRISPR Therapeutics, which operates out of Basel and London. Here is a selection of our coverage on this remarkably adaptable gene engineering system.

    Nov 26, 2014

  • Misidentified Cell Line List from NCBI

    NCBI News | NCBI's BioSample database now includes a curated list of over 400 known misidentified and contaminated cell lines.

    Nov 26, 2014

  • Searching for Common Ground in Autism Genetics

    Wired | Researchers including Evan Eichler and David Ledbetter are looking at groups of people with autism and searching for common underlying genetics.

    Nov 25, 2014

  • OK Go to Issue Album on DNA

    The New Yorker | Alt-rock band OK Go, a Grammy-winning group best known for its elaborate Youtube music videos, is enlisting the help of UCLA synthetic biologist Sri Kosuri to encode its latest album, "Hungry Ghosts," on a DNA molecule.

    Nov 24, 2014

  • American Biotech Start-Ups Head To China For Capital Partners

    Forbes | Several US biotechs are finding their funding needs met by venture firms from China.

    Nov 24, 2014

  • BioNano Closes Big Funding Round on Back of Key Irys Sales

    Bio-IT World News Brief | BioNano Genomics, a company headquartered in San Diego whose Irys instrument maps large structural variation in DNA samples, has announced a $53 million Series C financing round, to be invested in international expansion.

    Nov 21, 2014

  • NCBI Breaks Its Annotation Record

    NCBI | NCBI's Eukaryotic Genome Annotation Pipeline has completed the annotation of more than 100 organisms so far in 2014. 81 of the annotations thus far have been first annotations.

    Nov 21, 2014