• 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

  • A Personal Proteome Project

    Personal Proteomics | A proteomics bioinformatician launches his own Personal Proteome Project with proteome sequencing by Bioproximity. He is releasing three proteomics datasets on the Proteome Cluster on the Amazon Cloud.

    Mar 16, 2012

  • P4 Medicine Institute Adds Partner

    Xconomy | Leroy Hood's P4 Medicine Institute has announced an alliance with PeaceHealth, a nonprofit Catholic health system with locations in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. 

    Mar 16, 2012

  • GSK, Infosys Engage Consumers Digitally

    InPharm | GlaxoSmithKline has chosen Infosys and Fabric Worldwide to improve how GSK engages with consumers and health care professionals in digital media. 

    Mar 16, 2012

  • Merck Pledges $90m to California Institute for Biomedical Research

    U-T San Diego | Merck has pledged $90 million to the California Institute for Biomedical Research, a private, nonprofit center to be led by Peter Schultz and located in La Jolla.

    Mar 16, 2012

  • HHMI Announces New Competition For 30 Investigators

    HHMI News | The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) will appoint up to 30 new biomedical researchers through a national open competition, the institute has announced, an investment worth some $200 million over the next five years.

    Mar 15, 2012

  • Aspera Speeds Data in Amazon Cloud

    March 15, 2012 | SAN DIEGO—The directory of Aspera’s approximately 1,400 clients reads like the Fortune 500 list. These organizations use Aspera’s proprietary software to speed up the transfer of large volumes of data, which is significantly impacted by latency and packet loss. “We’ve solved the fundamental problem of moving big data over public and private networks,” Aspera’s Daniel Kumi, director of sales and business development, told an audience at CHI’s XGen Congress last week. 

    Mar 15, 2012

  • Dr. Watson: IBM's Clinical Genomics Platform

    Smart Planet | IBM has launched an analytics platform using some of the natural language processing of Watson for use in a health care setting. 

    Mar 15, 2012

  • Clinical Genomics for Leukemia Patients

    Reuters | Two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine explore genetic profiling's role in the treatment of AML, acute mylogenous leukemia. 

    Mar 15, 2012

  • VCF and the Genome Analysis Toolbox

    Bio-IT World | Inside the Box | We tend to take the extraordinary for granted. Roughly ten years ago we saw the first human genome sequence at a cost of roughly $3 billion. Now a person could have their genome sequenced in a few days for a few thousand dollars, turn around, and in a few more days compute how their sequence differs from any public sequence. This analysis might cost you just a few more dollars to rent the server. Let’s consider how one version of the bioinformatic part of this exercise might work.

    Mar 14, 2012

  • Broad's Heng Li Wins 2012 Benjamin Franklin Award

    Bio-IT World | Heng Li, a research scientist at the Broad Institute, is the winner of the 2012 Benjamin Franklin Award for Open Access in the Life Sciences. Li made essential contributions to the next generation sequencing (NGS) field with tools like SAMtools, BWA, MAQ, TreeSoft and TreeFam.  

    Mar 14, 2012