• 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

  • Ed Liu on JAX's New Genomic Medicine Institute

    Connecticut Mirror | The Jackson Laboratory is launching a new institute, JAX Genomic Medicine, later this year in Farmington, Connecticut. Ed Liu, JAX CEO and president, spoke on Friday at the Connecticut Science Center about the new institute and personalized medicine. 

    Feb 27, 2012

  • Biotech VC Woes Really Demand Growth, Not Supply Shortfall

    Pharmalot | Conventional wisdom says that biotech is a tough sell for venture capitalists these days, but new analysis shows a 16% increase over VC funding in 2011 compared to 2010, and a stunning 90% increase year to year in the last quarter. 

    Feb 27, 2012

  • February New Products

    Bio-IT World | New products for February including Life Technologies' new Ion Proton sequence, new NGS analysis software from Integromics, new products for clinical trial randomization and patient enrollment tracking, and new product lines specifically for patient-specific molecular and genomic data.  

    Feb 26, 2012

  • Complete Genomics Announces Software Partners

    MSNBC | Complete Genomics has introduced its Genomic Discovery Software Partners Program, which currently includes Ingenuity Systems, Golden Helix, and DNAnexus.

    Feb 23, 2012

  • Integromics Intends to Reign Beyond Spain

    Bio-IT World | In the heated field of genomics and proteomics informatics providers, new Integromics CEO Michael McManus has his work cut out to grow the business in a much more inclement economic climate than the one he experiences on his frequent visits to company headquarters in Madrid. 

    Feb 23, 2012

  • Drug Delivery Microchip

    Chicago Tribune Health | An implantable microchip has successfully delivered drugs to patients. The chip, developed by Microchips, Inc., is made of wells covered with a thin platinum/tatanium film. 

    Feb 23, 2012

  • Tech Review Lists 50 Most Innovative Companies

    Technology Review | MIT's Technology Review has published its list of the 50 most innovative companies in 2012 from energy, transportation, computing, web & digital media, materials, and biomedicine. Their list should sound familiar: Foundation Medicine; Integrated Diagnostics; PatientsLikeMe; Complete Genomics; Life Technologies; and more.

    Feb 23, 2012

  • February News Briefs

    Bio-IT World | February news briefs from around the industry: DNA sequencing in the clinic, diagnostic assays, open science challenge, automated language processing of big data, CDISC in Europe, and more.

    Feb 22, 2012

  • The Nanopore Wars: Genia CEO Touts Best of Oxford Nanopore and Ion Torrent

    Bio-IT World | Reacting to last week's nanopore sequencing breakthrough in a presentation at CHI's Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference in San Francisco, Stefan Roever, CEO of Bay Area Genia Technologies, said his company married attributes of Oxford Nanopore and Ion Torrent Systems, and was targeting the launch of a sequencing device with up to 1 million nanopores in 2013. 

    Feb 22, 2012

  • ELN Excellence: The New Lab Notebooks

    Bio-IT World | Of all the life science software that has sprung up in the past ten years or so, electronic lab notebooks (ELNs) are the only platforms that have emerged as strategic players across the market. That’s the opinion of Michael Stapleton, General Manager, Informatics at PerkinElmer, who estimates the market penetration is still only 30% to 40%—leaving massive growth opportunities for companies including Sapio Sciences, Agilent, Rescentris, Accelrys and IDBS in the space. 

    Feb 21, 2012

  • Budget Woes Stall Clinical Trials and Stymie Sites

    Bio-IT World | Imagine buying a new car or a new house but not knowing the price until the papers have already been drawn up and it’s time to sign on the dotted line.  According to Christine Pierre, President of RxTrials, that’s exactly the situation investigative sites face as they attempt to negotiate budgets and contracts for clinical trials. 

    Feb 20, 2012

  • Beyond Nanopores: News and Notes from AGBT

    Bio-IT World | Oxford Nanopore may have stolen the show at the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) meeting* last week, but they weren’t the only company showcasing advances in next generation technologies. 

    Feb 19, 2012

  • Oxford Strikes First in DNA Sequencing Nanopore Wars

    Bio-IT World | Breaking a near total vow of silence after three years in stealth mode, Oxford Nanopore chief technology officer Clive Brown offered stunning details of the UK firm's nanopore next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology today, including a sequencing device on a USB stick, viral genomes decoded in single runs, and the prospect of the $1,000 genome in less than an hour as early as next year.

    Feb 17, 2012

  • Biotech Investment vs Research

    Xconomy | The biotech investment model is changing. Venture capitalists are no longer willing to wait for a return on their investment while science does its thing. There is a trend toward very small, single-project companies that are more compelling to big company buyers. 

    Feb 16, 2012

  • 2012 Franklin Award Accepting Nominations

    Bio-IT World | Nominations are being accepted for the 2012 Benjamin Franklin Award  for Open Access in the Life Sciences. The award is a humanitarian/bioethics award presented annually by Bioinformatics.org an individual who has, in his or her practice, promoted free and open access to the materials and methods used in the life sciences. 

    Feb 16, 2012

  • Pharma Lit: Elsevier Serves Pharma with Acquisitions of Ariadne, Quosa

    Bio-IT World | “We have a history of servicing life sciences and drug discovery/drug development in the pharma industry,” says Alexander van Boetzelaer, managing director of corporate markets for the Dutch publishing giant Elsevier. But while that history is based largely on serving up traditional scientific literature, the needs of the pharma industry are changing, and Elsevier has made several acquisitions to meet those needs.

    Feb 16, 2012

  • Behind the Biogen-Stromedix Deal

    Forbes | Earlier this week Biogen Idec acquired Stromedix, a biotechnology company focused on innovative therapies for fibrosis and organ failure, for up to $526m. Two of the venture capitalists behind Stromedix talk about the startup's history and the path to Biogen.

    Feb 16, 2012

  • Which Grid Engine?

    Bio-IT World | In December 2010, Oracle announced that Grid Engine (a very popular life science cluster scheduler and distributed resource manager that Oracle inherited via its purchase of Sun Microsystems) would no longer be freely available as an open-source product. Oracle's decision to make Grid Engine available only to commercially licensed customers left a large community of scientific and high performance computing users questioning the viability of their long term technical planning and HPC roadmaps. 

    Feb 15, 2012