• Faster, Scarless Assemblies

    Bio-IT World | There are plenty of plaudits for organizations in the life sciences that change the industry’s conceptions of what is possible, but one purpose of the Bio-IT World Best Practices Awards is to highlight those who refine those achievements until the merely possible becomes truly practical. That is why Bio-IT World was pleased to award an honorable mention at the 2013 Best Practices Awards to TeselaGen Biotechnology, a startup that spun out from the Berkeley Lab’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) in 2011, and Amgen for the development of TeselaGen: j5, an automated platform for designing DNA assembly protocols.

    Oct 22, 2013

  • Broad Institute Launches CLIA Lab and Exome Sequencing

    Bio-IT World | The Broad Institute today announced that it has passed Massachusetts state inspection, and can begin processing clinical samples as a CLIA-certified lab.

    Oct 21, 2013

  • Foundation Medicine Reports Validation of FoundationOne Assay

    Bio-IT World News Brief | Foundation Medicine has announced findings from a 24-month, multi-institution collaboration demonstrating the analytic validation of its FoundationOne cancer genomics assay. The results were published in the online edition of Nature Biotechnology.

    Oct 21, 2013

  • Quantified Patient

    Bio-IT World | Health care and the life sciences industry’s success ultimately turns on patient investment and compliance. No matter how brilliant the finding, how good the drug, how effective the treatment, it is only as good as the patient’s ability and willingness to participate.

    Oct 21, 2013

  • Alemtuzumab, My Dear Watson

    Forbes | Watson, the IBM supercomputer best known for its successful stint as a Jeopardy contestant, has a new gig as a clinical advisor at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

    Oct 18, 2013

  • 5 Ways Technology Is Changing Personalized Medicine

    Bio-IT World | Guest Commentary | In today’s doctor’s office, when a physician diagnoses a patient, a number of tests are consulted and the best possible course of treatment is prescribed. Unfortunately there is often limited data that allows the doctor to tailor and customize treatment specifically to a patient's biology and lifestyle. But there are five ways technology will change that over the next decade, bringing personalized medicine to fruition.

    Oct 18, 2013

  • Good Start's Test Detects More Carriers

    Bio-IT World News Brief | Good Start Genetics presented additional data on their GoodStart Select carrier screening test. GoodStart reports that 8.4% of carriers of genetic diseases detected with the Good Start tests would have been missed using other available technologies.

    Oct 17, 2013

  • Clinical Genomics, Informatics in Lisbon

    Bio-IT World | Bio-IT World is taking on Europe this December under a new name: Clinical Genomics & Informatics Europe. For our fifth year in Europe, we’re digging specifically into clinical genomics and the informatics that underlie progress. Our sequencing track will cover both clinical exome sequencing and RNA sequencing, and on the informatics side of the house, we’ll look at high-scale computing and genomic informatics. The program is rich with standout speakers. Here are just a few of the presentations we’ve flagged.

    Oct 17, 2013

  • Rare Recessive Disorder Hints at Crucial Role for 'Non-Essential' Protein

    Neuron | A team of researchers seeking to pinpoint the genetic cause of a rare disorder of brain growth have implicated deficiencies of the amino acid asparagine in the disease phenotype.

    Oct 16, 2013

  • OpenHelix Launches Free Bioinformatics Tools Tutorials for Mobile

    Bio-IT World News Brief | OpenHelix today launched a suite of over 100 online bioinformatics and genomics tutorials that introduce researchers, teachers, and students to biomedical resources that are freely available on the web.

    Oct 16, 2013

  • Apache Releases Hadoop 2

    Computerworld | The Apache Software Foundation has released Hadoop 2. The most notable new component is YARN--yet another resource negotiator--which Apache refers to as MapReduce version 2.

    Oct 16, 2013

  • Six Years After Acquisition, Roche Quietly Shutters 454

    Bio-IT World News Brief | This month, Roche began the process of closing its wholly-owned subsidiary 454 Life Sciences, a once-dominant player in next-generation sequencing.

    Oct 16, 2013

  • A Daughter's Data: More on 23andMe and Privacy

    FastCompany | In another 23andMe profile, an author submits a sample from her adopted daughter and gets some of the most challenging results.

    Oct 16, 2013

  • A New Method of Attack Against Cancer: Old Age

    Nature Communications | Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School believe it may be possible to stop tumor cells from proliferating by teaching them how to age again.

    Oct 14, 2013

  • Changing the Terms of Antibiotic Discovery

    Nature Chemical Biology | Researchers from McMaster University are bypassing traditional drug discovery methods by targeting the processes through which bacteria synthesize and metabolize nutrients, hoping to find new antibiotic compounds that could destroy pathogens in vivo even though these drugs would not work in the ideal nutrient-rich conditions usually tested in the lab.

    Oct 14, 2013

  • Human Variome Project Expands in Southeast Asia

    Bio-IT World News Brief | The Human Variome Project has launched a Southeast Asian node to facilitate the sharing of genetic variations in Southeast Asian populations.

    Oct 11, 2013

  • MolecularHealth Enters the American Cancer Genomics Market

    Bio-IT World | MolecularHealth, which just announced the management team for its North American Office, is preparing to launch a personalized, direct-to-consumer genomic service for cancer patients in the Unites States.

    Oct 10, 2013

  • One Simple Rule Could Regulate Structural Neuroplasticity

    PLOS Computational Biology | Researchers have proposed a simple homeostatic rule to explain the process by which new neural connections are established and damage to the brain is repaired.

    Oct 10, 2013

  • Genetic Witnesses to European Prehistory

    Science | A large study of ancient mitochondrial DNA is helping to reconstruct the migration patterns of Europeans during the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural lifestyles.

    Oct 10, 2013

  • Lilly Scientists Steal Trade Secrets

    Indianapolis Business Journal | Two Lilly scientists emailed details about nine experimental drug research programs to an individual employed by Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co. Ltd., based in China.

    Oct 10, 2013