• The Best and Worst in a Tumultuous Year for Science

    WIRED | It's been a roller-coaster year for science. It started with what looked like a remarkable breakthrough in stem cell science, which was soon followed by a stunning announcement by cosmologists: the first detection of gravitational waves, direct evidence for a popular theory of how the universe began. But as the year draws to a close, the first of these discoveries has been thoroughly discredited, and the second appears to be on the ropes.

    Dec 22, 2014

  • Roche Acquires Bina Technologies’ Powerful Genome Analysis Platform

    Bio-IT World | Bina Technologies announced this morning that it has been acquired by Roche. Financial details were not disclosed. The Roche acquisition is, “the best outcome that could have happened for our company,” co-founder and CEO Narges Bani Asadi told Bio-IT World today.

    Dec 19, 2014

  • Function Follows Form: A New Look at Genome Folding

    Bio-IT World | Fitting a two-meter strand of DNA into a nucleus a few microns long is no simple thing. The genome isn’t wadded up and stuffed into every cell in the body, it’s folded meticulously. A five-year effort to look at the genome inside cells suggests that these folds may play crucial roles in function.

    Dec 19, 2014

  • Genome Sequencing Exploring the Diagnostic Promise

    NIH Director's Blog | At the time that we completed a draft of the 3 billion letters of the human genome about a decade ago, it would have cost about $100 million to sequence a second human genome. Today, thanks to advances in DNA sequencing technology, it will soon be possible to sequence your genome or mine for  $1,000…

    Dec 19, 2014

  • Version 13 of the Human Protein Atlas, Clickable, Downloadable, and Nearly Complete, is Now Online

    Bio-IT World | A new version of a research tool described as the world’s first spatial index to the human proteome is expected to change the nature of drug development, and is already the source of some two external peer-reviewed research papers on average every day, said Professor Mathias Uhlén, at a press conference on Nov. 6 announcing the release of version 13 of the Atlas.

    Dec 18, 2014

  • Global Alliance Plans Internet for Genomes

    MIT Technology Review | Scientists are starting to open their DNA databases online, creating a network that could pave the way for gene analysis at a new scale.

    Dec 18, 2014

  • Big Pharma Moves to Boston

    Boston Globe | Big pharma is expanding its reach in the Boston area, picking up small to mid-sized biotechs for billions of dollars. Last week Merck announced plans to buy Cubist Pharmaceuticals for $9.5 billion.

    Dec 17, 2014

  • 14M Genomics Spins out of Sanger

    Business Weekly | A new genomics powerhouse, 14M Genomics, spun out of the world famous Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, has been launched in the Cambridge UK technology cluster with a £12.5 million financing.

    Dec 17, 2014

  • Quanterix Offers Lab Access to Simoa Protein Analyzer

    Bio-IT World News Brief | Quanterix today announced the opening of a Simoa Accelerator in Lexington, Mass., where scientists and can rent access to the company's high-throughput Simoa instruments for protein analysis.

    Dec 16, 2014

  • Retraction Watch to Build Comprehensive Database of Retractions

    Bio-IT World News Brief | Retraction Watch, a popular blog founded in 2010 to investigate retractions in the scientific literature, has received a two-year grant from the MacArthur Foundation to compile a database of all retractions, corrections, and expressions of concern in every field of science.

    Dec 15, 2014

  • Agenda: Informatics Channel at MMTC

    Bio-IT World | The Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference in San Francisco has a rich agenda with four content channels in addition to short courses and symposia. This year we are particularly interested in the Informatics Channel. Here’s the working draft of our agenda.

    Dec 12, 2014

  • 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