• Expensive Gene Therapy Approved in Europe

    Reuters | Europe has approved an expensive gene therapy. Glybera treats the genetic disorder lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD) and will cost around 1.2 million euros ($1.6 million) per patient.

    Nov 5, 2012

  • Oxford Nanopore and Illumina in Arbitration Regarding Sequencing Partnership

    Bio-IT World | In an analyst research note issued last week, Charles Weston, director of equity research at Numis Securities Ltd in London, spotlighted a legal proceeding between Oxford Nanopore Technologies and Illumina, an early investor in the company. 

    Nov 5, 2012

  • Watson Learns Medicine

    Fast Company | IBM's Watson computer is learning medicine. Through a series of apps and guidance by real oncologists, the computer is practicing diagnoses and storing new disease facts in its database.

    Nov 5, 2012

  • In Conversation: Tufts Geneticist Diana Bianchi on Noninvasive Prenatal Testing

    Bio-IT World | One year after the commercial debut of the first noninvasive prenatal test for aneuploidy by Sequenom, the technology is seeing rapid uptake and development by a handful of diagnostics start-ups. Diana Bianchi, an expert in noninvasive prenatal testing at Tufts Medical Center an to Verinata Health, discusses the exciting advances in this field.

    Nov 5, 2012

  • Amazon Web Services Outage Postmortem

    Computerworld | Last week's AWS outage drew myriad responses and placed blame, but it was an inevitable occurance. The outage started small, but snowballed into a 12-hour event.

    Nov 2, 2012

  • King’s Proclamation for Citizen Scientists

    Bio-IT World | First Base | One of the most electrifying scientific presentations I’ve ever heard—complete with a rare standing ovation—came nearly two decades ago at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) annual convention. The woman who gave those remarks—Mary-Claire King—is now the president of ASHG and will likely inspire thousands in attendance once again when she deliver’s her presidential address next week in San Francisco.

    Oct 31, 2012

  • 1000 Genomes Project Publishes Inventory of Human Genetic Variation

    The Guardian | Scientists with the 1,000 Genomes Project have published the full genetic sequences of more than 1,000 people from 14 countries, creating the most complete inventory of the millions of variations between people's DNA sequences ever assembled. The resource will shed light on the genetic roots of complex diseases, as well as informing studies of human evolution.

    Nov 1, 2012

  • Roche Accused of Sitting on Trial Data for Flu Treatment

    The Independent | Roche is being accused of withholding key trial data about a vital flu drug, Tamiflu, on which governments around the world have spent billions of dollars. The editor of the British Medical Journal published an open letter to Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University and a Roche board member, asking him to persuade the company to release the data "for independent scrutiny".

    Nov 1, 2012

  • Nanopore Sequencing Inches Closer to Commercial Debut

    Physics Today | With Oxford Nanopore exhibiting at next week's American Society of Human Genetics conference, there is growing excitement about the prospects for nanopore sequencing technology, particularly given recent progress in controlling DNA’s motion in the pore. The signs are that this technology is indeed inching towards a commercial debut in the near future.

    Nov 1, 2012

  • Novartis to Build $500M Facility in Singapore

    Reuters | Novartis has announced a $500 million investment in Singapore in the form of a new manufacturing facility that will focus on drug substance manufacturing based on cell culture technology.

    Oct 31, 2012

  • Crowdsourced Meth Labs?

    Economist | Two guys are asking the internet for help funding a meth lab. Their project is one of many crowd-sourced research options out there.

    Oct 31, 2012

  • The Protein Treasure Hunt

    Bio-IT World | Dr Peter Hoffman’s research group is using mass spectrometry to create high-resolution images of proteins in archived tumour samples to help identify new diagnostic markers for cancer.

    Oct 30, 2012

  • The Tennessee Titan: Oak Ridge, Cray, NVIDIA Create New Open Science Supercomputer

    Bio-IT World | A new 20 petaflop supercomputer dubbed Titan is powering up at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee and ready to tackle some a host of scientific applications.

    Oct 26, 2012

  • Super Fast Computer Simulates the Heart

    HPCwire | The world's current fastest supercomputer--Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Sequoia--has created a simulation of the human heart.

    Oct 26, 2012

  • The Challenges of Pediatric Sequencing

    Time | Advances in DNA sequencing present challenges for doctors. Pediactric sequencing can help sick babies, but it can also give doctors more information than they know what to do with.

    Oct 26, 2012

  • News and Briefs from Thomson Reuters, Broad, iNova

    Bio-IT World | News and product briefs from the life sciences. Thomson Reuters releases drug repositioning white paper; Broad  announces GenePattern v3.4; and iNova moves to Singapore.

    Oct 25, 2012

  • Researchers Replace Damaged DNA in Human Cell

    Bloomberg | Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have successfully replaced unhealthy DNA from one human egg with disease-free genetic material from another.

    Oct 25, 2012

  • Teradata Releases New Database Capabilities

    eWeek | Teradata, a provider of analytic data solutions, has announced new database capabilities that enable customers to deliver real-time agility. The new Teradata Database capabilities include workload management features, Teradata Data Lab with Smart Loader, Teradata Studio and Teradata Virtual Machine Edition.

    Oct 25, 2012

  • Mitochondrial DNA Study Reveals Ancient Diversity

    Sci-News.com | Researchers in New Zealand sequenced mitochondrial DNA of some of the country's earliest inhabitants, and discovered more genetic diversity than previously thought.

    Oct 25, 2012

  • Wisconsin Group to Develop $60 Million Partnership to Bring Sequencing to Patients

    Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel | Building on its pioneering use of DNA sequencing to diagnose and treat Nic Volker, the Medical College of Wisconsin is in talks to develop an ambitious $60 million public/private partnership aimed at bringing sequencing to more patients.

    Oct 24, 2012