• Progress and Problems in Clinical Genomics Sequencing at XGen Congress

    Bio-IT World | SAN DIEGO—Two leaders in the clinical application of whole genome sequencing offered further signs of progress in a pair of keynote talks at the 2012 XGen Congress. Rick Wilson, director of The Genome Institute (TGI) at Washington University, St Louis, and Elizabeth Worthey, bioinformatician at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), shared new findings on the sequencing of cancer and pediatric cases. Although encouraging, Worthey in particular expressed some strong cautionary notes that are hampering current efforts in ending diagnostic odysseys. 

    Mar 7, 2012

  • Mutation Variability Across Single Tumors

    Bloomberg | A study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that mutations in different parts of the same tumor can vary wildly. A single biopsy, then, may not give doctors enough information to identify mutations that should be targeted by drugs. 

    Mar 7, 2012

  • Computer-Aided Treatment Plans

    Xconomy | MolecularHealth has released a decision-support software platform for oncologists. The platform takes all the information a doctor has--including a patient's entire genome if it's been sequenced--and scans the available data and the medical literature and gives the oncologist a ranked list of treatment options.

    Mar 7, 2012

  • Pharma's Missing Innovation

    Atlantic | Sanofi CEO said the pharma is reducing its internal research capacity not because it's cheaper (though it is) but to take advantage of the best ideas in science.

    Mar 7, 2012

  • Five Reasons Illumina Should Stay Independent

    Xconomy | The Illumina-Roche acquisition dance continues and Luke Timmerman says that if the low-ball takeover happens, it would be, "bad for Illumina shareholders, bad for the genetic tools industry, bad for science..."

    Mar 5, 2012

  • Generic Drug Debates

    Huffington Post | A tenent of Obama's health care plan was cheaper generic drug options, but that's proving easier said than done. Approving biosimilars is a complex and drawn-out process.

    Mar 5, 2012

  • CDC Budget Cuts Could Put Agency at Risk

    Nature | President Obama's cuts in CDC funding could spell disaster for the agency. The CDC has had its overall budget cut by 20% since 2010. Some of the cuts are meant to be made up by other government spending, but some of those sources' budgets are not yet approved by Congress. 

    Mar 4, 2012

  • The Myth of the Low-Hanging Fruit

    Forbes | The "low-hanging fruit" that fueled biotech and pharma in the past is a myth, says John LaMattina. R&D isn't emerging from a golden age of discovery; research has always been hard and the blockbusters of yesterday came at the expense of "spectacular failures."

    Mar 4, 2012

  • Insight Genetics Pursues Diagnostic for Lung Cancer

    Tennessean | Insight Genetics just signed a key distribution agreement with Qiagen to bring its diagnostic test for a genetic mutation for Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) to market.

    Mar 4, 2012

  • The Statin-Diabetes Link

    New York Times | The Food and Drug Administration warned last week that statins could be causing a sharp increase in Type 2 diabetes and contributing to memory loss among users. 

    Mar 4, 2012

  • Buetow Moves On from caBIG

    Bio-IT World | On March 5, Kenneth Buetow, former director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology at the National Cancer Institute and instrumental in NCI's Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid, or caBIG program, is joining Arizona State University as director of Computational Sciences and Informatics in the Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative.

    Mar 1, 2012

  • February Free Trials and Downloads

    Bio-IT World | Free trials & downloads featuring tox screening, ELNs, data visualization, digital signatures, plasmid mapping, and more.  

    Mar 1, 2012

  • Lilly to Spend $10m on Academic Collaborations

    Indy Star | Eli Lilly is planning to spend about $10 million on academic partnerships that would support its drug discovery efforts. This week, Lilly announced the first three projects chosen for funding. 

    Feb 29, 2012

  • Rare Disease Day, Common Focus

    Bio-IT World Roundup | In honor of "Rare Disease Day" yesterday (Feb 29, get it?), rare diseases garnered quite a bit of attention from the Rare Genomics Institute, a Rare Diseases Clinical Exome Challenge, and the Clinic for Special Children.

    Feb 29, 2012

  • Instruct Network Links Structural Biologists in Europe

    Nature News | The Instruct Network launched last week in Europe, allows structural biologists to share the tools they need to model the cell. With a goal of having a "Google Cell" approach (similar to Google Earth), 22 structural-biology centers linked equipment and expertise.

    Feb 29, 2012

  • BGI, Agilent Announce Collaboration

    Asian Scientist | BGI and Agilent today announced a collaborative effort to develop new technologies for genome-wide association studies.

    Feb 29, 2012

  • Thomson Reuters Releases APIs for Cortellis Life Sciences Platform

    Bio-IT World | Thomson Reuters announced a series of APIs (application programming interfaces) for its Cortellis life sciences platform this morning called Cortellis for Informatics. The APIs will give customers direct access to the Cortellis content.  

    Feb 28, 2012

  • 2012 Benjamin Franklin Award Finalists Named

    Bio-IT World | Bioinformatics.org has announced the finalists in the 2012 Benjamin Franklin Award: Helen Berman, Rutgers University; Carole Goble, University of Manchester; Eugene V. Koonin, NCBI/NLM/NIH; Heng Li, Broad Institute; John Quackenbush, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute & Harvard School of Public Health; Bruno Sobral, Virginia Bioinformatics Institute; and Janet Thornton, European Bioinformatics Institute. 

    Feb 27, 2012

  • Modeling microRNAs

    Bio-IT World | MicroRNAs (miRNAs) work by modifying gene expression at the post-translational level across a range of species, from plants to worms to humans, and Stephen Cohen's lab at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) in Singapore uses the fruit fly as a genetic model for the study of cancer, metabolic disease and neurodegeneration and in recent years has focused on understanding the biological functions of miRNAs in this context.  

    Feb 27, 2012

  • Roche Extends Illumina Offer

    Businessweek | Yesterday, Roche extended its offering for Illumina until March 23 after failing to win over shareholders with the $44.50/share offer that expired on February 24. Roche has been making offers for the biotech since January 25.

    Feb 27, 2012