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Rare Mutations Mean Less Disease Correlation
Bloomberg | In a paper released last week in Science, researchers at the University of Washington show that most genetic variations in people are rare and evolutionarily recent. The findings further reinforce the changes being made to how we think about correlating genetic changes with diseases.
May 20, 2012
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Human Genome Sciences Seeks to Fend Off GSK
New York Times | Human Genome Sciences is still rejecting a bid from GlaxoSmithKline to buy the biotech. Human Genome Sciences' board voted unanimously to reject the GSK offer and adopt a shareholders' rights plan, or poison pill.
May 17, 2012
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Driving Innovation from Within
2012 Bio-IT World Best Practices Winner | “It’s survival of the fittest,” explains Ulrich Betz, department head of Merck Serono’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Incubator, of Merck’s innospire program, winner of the 2012 Bio-IT World Best Practices award for Knowledge Management. Only the best ideas win.
May 17, 2012
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Pfizer's Lung Cancer Drug Targets ALK Gene
Wall Street Journal | Pfizer's new lung cancer drug is showing effectiveness against childhood cancers with defects in the ALK gene.
May 16, 2012
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BGI Installs Roche System for Long Reads
Bio-IT World | BGI has garnered a lot of attention for its sheer sequencing capacity. Now the sequencing center has installed a new Roche GS FLX+ System at its Shenzhen facility to enhance BGI's long read sequencing capabilities and supplement the short read technologies.
May 16, 2012
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GSK Buys Proteomics Company
Fox Business | GlaxoSmithKline has purchased the remaining percentage of Cellzome for about $98 million in cash.
May 16, 2012
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The Goals of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
Forbes | Last year NIH set up the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences to overcome bottlenecks and accelerate the development of diagnostics and therapeutics. Recently, the Center's mandate has been further expanded.
May 16, 2012
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454, SoftGenetics Enter Promotion Agreement
Bio-IT World | 454 Life Sciences and SoftGenetics have entered into a co-promotion agreement designed to provide users of 454 Sequencing Systems the broad range of next-generation sequencing data analysis options provided by SoftGenetics NextGENe software.
May 15, 2012
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Pitfalls Aplenty for Observational Research
Bio-IT World | Limitations on the use of observational data in comparative effectiveness research (CER) were among the themes of a Post-Approval Summit held in early May at Harvard Medical School*. The march toward bigger and often mandatory post-approval studies needs to be rooted in “strong science,” enabled by industry partnerships with large health care delivery organizations, insurers, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and academia, according to keynote speaker Michael Rosenblatt, executive vice president and chief medical officer at Merck.
May 13, 2012
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Best Practices: Bringing the Trial to the Patient
2012 Bio-IT World Best Practices Winner | Almost a year ago, Pfizer started recruiting for a different kind of clinical trial: the first ever conducted under a Participatory Patient-Centered (PPC) model. Last month, the team’s efforts—still very much ongoing—were rewarded with a Bio-IT World Best Practices Award in the Clinical and Health IT category.
May 10, 2012
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Drug Timing Affects Efficacy
MIT News | Researchers at MIT and Dana Farber have shown that staggering cancer drugs produces better results--in very specific ways. The results were published in Cell today.
May 10, 2012
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More Thoughts on Sequence Analysis
Xconomy | We are generally agreed that the analysis side of the next generation sequencing coin is becoming the toughest. Even if you get your sequence in a day, then you have to process it.
May 9, 2012
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GSK Launches Hostile Takeover Bid for Human Genome Sciences
Baltimore Sun | GlaxoSmithKline has launched a hostile takeover bid for long-time partner Human Genome Sciences worth $2.6 billion, or $13/share.
May 9, 2012
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Manolis Kellis, Epigenetics, and the Future of Fighting Disease
Bio-IT World | BOSTON—Manolis Kellis, professor of computer science at MIT, addressed the Bio-IT World Conference on efforts to revolutionize the study of human disease by bridging the gap between genetics and epigenetics.
May 9, 2012
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Introducing the Bina Box
Technology Review | Bina Technologies is throwing its hat into the genome analysis ring with an in-house analyzer that can upload the resulting genetic profiles to the company's cloud-hosted site for data management, sharing, and aggregation.
May 8, 2012
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Editors' Asian Favorites
Bio-IT World | Bio-IT World has invited a group of superb world-renowned speakers from across Asia, Europe, and North America for its very first conference in Asia (Marina Bay Sands, Singapore; June 6-8, 2012). They will present the latest advances in research and technology in areas such as next-gen sequencing, personalized medicine, high-performance and cloud computing, bioinformatics, drug discovery and development, and translational research. Read on for some of the editor's favorites.
May 7, 2012
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The Merits of Data Sharing in Tackling Rare Diseases
Bio-IT World | BOSTON—Alex Sherman, director of systems in neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) presented promising new initiatives in the battle against rare diseases at the Bio-IT World Conference. Sherman proposed a model for dealing with the many obstacles that confront research on rare diseases.
May 7, 2012
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Biosimilars Gain Ground in Europe
Forbes | Thanks to enabling legislation and differing clinical trials requirements, Europe moves further ahead in biosimilar sales.
May 7, 2012
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Dagdigian’s Trends in IT Highlight Bio-IT World Expo
Bio-IT World | BOSTON—“Filter my words accordingly; I’m not a pundit or visionary,” began Chris Dagdigian in a superfluous introduction to his annual “trends in the trenches” review at the Bio-IT World Expo last week.
May 3, 2012
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Oxford Nanopore Announces a Further $50 Million fundraising
Bio-IT World | Oxford Nanopore has raised an additional $50 million from private investors as it seeks to build up the commercial and manufacturing infrastructure in preparation for commercial launch of its next-gen sequencing system later this year.
May 3, 2012