• The Y Chromosome Is Safe

    The Atlantic | The Y chromosome is safe, says a new Nature study. The idea that the Y chromosome was quickly losing genes, the "rotting Y" theory, is stalled according to research from geneticists at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

    Mar 28, 2012

  • Biotech Business Model Menu

    Forbes | Biotech business models can make a difference in funding and success, but it's not a one-size-fits-all approach. 

    Mar 28, 2012

  • Jiff Launches First HIPAA-Compliant Health Care Social Network

    Bio-IT World | Jiff Inc. unveiled the first HIPAA-compliant health care social network and digital health apps platform: Circle of Health earlier this month. Circle of Health will allow consumers, their loved ones, and their care providers to share critical health information and easily monitor and manage their health through digital health applications that seamlessly integrate with each other. 

    Mar 27, 2012

  • Supreme Court Calls for Review of Gene Patent Case

    New York Times | The US Supreme Court ordered an appeals court to reconsider its decision upholding two Myriad Genetics gene patents in light of last week's ruling on a diagnostic test.

    Mar 26, 2012

  • Columbia University Sues Illumina Over NGS Patents

    Reuters | Columbia University filed suit against Illumina yesterday for allegedly infringing on five DNA sequencing patents. The patents were assigned between 2009 and 2012 and list several inventors.

    Mar 26, 2012

  • March New Products

    Bio-IT World | New products in clinical trials, sequencing analysis, storage, chromatography and more from across the industry. 

    Mar 26, 2012

  • Another Look at the MinION

    Wired | Wired looks at Oxford Nanopore's USB sequencer, the MinION. It has the potential to be a game changer, but users are still waiting to see it in action.

    Mar 26, 2012

  • A Preview of Bio-IT World Expo 2012

    Bio-IT World | On April 24-26, Bio-IT World will host its tenth anniversary conference in Boston, and anticipates the largest gathering to date, along with a record 125 companies exhibiting this year. More than 200 speakers will present in a total of 12 concurrent conference tracks, as well as 15 short courses, not to mention the 2012 Bio-IT World Best Practices Awards and the Best of Show exhibit prizes. Here are just a few of the potential highlights on this year’s program. 

    Mar 25, 2012

  • Growth at San Diego Supercomputing Center

    Lab Manager | The San Diego Supercomputer Center has been growing over the past three years, and has created a fully integrated "big data" environment.

    Mar 23, 2012

  • Personalized Medicine and Safety

    InformationWeek | Some of personalized medicine's most famous examples are of drug efficacy, but could genomics help with drug safety as well?

    Mar 21, 2012

  • GSK, Johnson & Johnson Invest in $200m Venture Fund

    NJ.com | GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson are forming a $200 million fund to invest in early-stage biotech companies. 

    Mar 22, 2012

  • Court Rejects Personalized Medicine Patents

    Chicago Tribune | The US Supreme Court rejected two Prometheus patents on a method for monitoring a patient's blood to determine drug dosing. Mayo Clinic brought the patent challenge. The Supreme Court ruled that adjusting dosage based on patient monitoring was a natural process and could not be patented.

    Mar 21, 2012

  • Roche Courts Illumina Shareholders Directly

    Reuters | Roche sent Illumina investors a direct letter yesterday urging them to accept the Roche bid, currently at $5.7 billion. Again Roche claimed the offer was "full and fair".

    Mar 20, 2012

  • Future Under Review for caBIG and NCI's Informatics Strategy

    Bio-IT World | One year after the board of scientific advisors for the working group on caBIG called for a one-year moratorium on new projects, contracts, and subcontracts by caBIG, and a thorough audit of all aspects of the caBIG budget and expenditures, the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT) at the National Cancer Institute has a new interim director and is building a new game plan. George A. Komatsoulis stressed to Bio-IT World that “caBIG is continuing to operate” and, “the NCI intends to remain engaged in a substantial way in the biomedical informatics space.” 

    Mar 20, 2012

  • Europe and/or Bust

    Xconomy | Even though Europe's financial system has been on charging downhill recently, several venture firms have invested heavily in European biotech in recent months.

    Mar 19, 2012

  • GNS Healthcare Aids Search for Fresh Leads on CHF Readmissions

    Bio-IT World | Hypotheses culled from real-world outcomes data will be getting large-scale testing by Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The advanced analytics of GNS Healthcare are being applied to de-identified data from electronic health records (EHRs), pharmacy data, and administrative claims information to determine what factors contribute to adverse drug reactions and hospital readmissions in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), says David Bates, MD, director of the hospital’s Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice. 

     

    Mar 19, 2012

  • The Big Picture: Combining Genomics with Medicine

    LA Times | Michael Snyder, head of the genetics department at Stanford University, had taken personal genome sequencing one step further. With the help of a team of researchers, Snyder had his full genome sequenced and then compared those findings to frequent blood draws measuring proteins, RNA, and other chemicals in his body.

    Mar 18, 2012

  • Plans for the California Institute of Biomedical Research

    Xconomy | Last week Merck announced a $90m investment in the California Institute of Biomedical Research--Calibr--to be headed by Peter Schultz. Xconomy spoke with Schultz about the hiring process, plans for collaborations, and the Institute's relationship with Merck.

    Mar 18, 2012

  • After the Gravy Days: Opportunities for Biotech Growth

    Forbes, Wall Street Journal | In an article on biotech funding on Friday, the Wall Street Journal did not mince words: "The gravy days are over," the authors said, comparing fundraising to the housing market for sellers: tough. Forbes contributor David Shaywitz looks at where the opportunities are for disruptive growth in this environment. 

    Mar 18, 2012

  • Computer Scientists' Solution to a Biologist’s Problem

    Bio-IT World | HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND—In 2004, a New Zealand biotech approached a group of computer scientists with a biology problem. Genesis Research was sequencing the poplar tree genome, and they had a problem they estimated it would take their in house cluster about three months to solve, recalls Graham Gaylard, Real Time Genomics’ founder. A team of computer scientists solved the problem in a few weeks. 

    Mar 16, 2012