• Assemblathon I Offers Lessons in Complex Genome Assembly

    Bio-IT World | The recently published results of the first round of the Assemblathon, while demonstrating the relative quality of the usual suspects in de novo genome assembly (Broad Institute, Sanger Institute, BGI), offer several important lessons in tackling such projects, according to co-organizer Ian Korf.

    Dec 13, 2011

  • Leading Japanese Genomics Researcher Heading to Chicago

    The Daily Yomiuri | Tokyo University's Yusuke Nakamura, arguably the leading genomics researcher in Japan, is stepping down as head of the office promoting medical innovation to take up a new position at the University of Chicago next April, where he will focus on cancer drug discovery.

    Dec 13, 2011

  • Best Practices 2012: Early Deadline Approaching

    Bio-IT World | The early bird deadline for the 2012 Best Practices competition is this Friday. Since 2003, Bio-IT World's Best Practices competition has been recognizing outstanding examples of technology and strategic innovation initiatives across the drug discovery enterprise. 

    Dec 11, 2011

  • Cancer Researchers Migrate En Masse from Dana Farber to MD Anderson

    Boston Globe | MD Anderson Cancer Center has lured 55 scientists away from the Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute after Ron DePinho, the founding director of the Belfer Institute, was chosen as president of MD Anderson.

    Dec 12, 2011

  • Virus-Like Nanoparticles for Gene Therapy

    R&D Magazine | Yale researchers have developed a nanopartical that can mimic a virus and insert a gene into a diseased cell to either kill or repair it. The technique, published Dec. 4 online in Nature Materials, is based on a novel family of polymers.

    Dec 8, 2011

  • Elsevier Acquires Ariadne Genomics

    Bio-IT World | Elsevier, the Dutch publishing giant, has acquired Ariadne Genomics, a software provider of pathway analysis tools and semantic technologies for life science researchers, based in Rockville, MD.  

    Dec 8, 2011

  • IBM Provides NIH Free Chemical Compound Database

    Bio-IT World | IBM, Bristol-Myers Squibb, DuPont, and Pfizer are providing the National Institutes of Health with a database of more than 2.4 million chemical compounds extracted from about 4.7 million patents and 11 million biomedical journal abstracts from 1976 to 2000. The chemical data should help researchers more easily visualize important relationships among chemical compounds to aid in drug discovery and support advanced cancer research.  

     

    Dec 7, 2011

  • Helpful, Harmful, Confusing: Direct-to-Consumer Genomics

    JAMA | James Evans, professor of genetics at the University of North Carolina, is concerned about exome sequencing services like those offered by 23andMe. In a commentary published yesterday in JAMA, Evans and UNC co-author Jonathan Berg argue that whole genome and whole exome sequencing technology “will routinely uncover both trivial and important medical results, both welcome and unwelcome."

    Dec 7, 2011

  • Genomic Health Test Spares Women Unncessary Radiation

    USA TODAY | According to results presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, a new 12-gene test from Genomic Health could spare thousands of women diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) annually by predicting which cases are most likely to be aggressive — requiring both surgery and radiation — versus surgery alone.

    Dec 7, 2011

  • NHGRI Funding Plan Includes Clinical Sequencing, Software and Disease Research

    Bio-IT World | The NHGRI has announced the latest iteration of its flagship genome sequencing program -- worth $416 million over four years -- that features initiatives in the study of rare inherited diseases, software development and accelerates the use of genome sequence information in the clinical arena.

    Dec 6, 2011

  • Crescendo Bioscience’s Aspirations

    Bio-IT World | The Russell Transcript | The rise of personalized medicine—however broadly or narrowly we define it—has been stymied in part by a lack of effective biomarkers. Cancer is perhaps an early and growing exception. The trend to profile a specific patient’s tumor for markers to help physicians pick the best therapeutic regime is a good example of the growing sophistication of biomarkers and their long-term potential as the cost of performing such tests declines.  

     

    Dec 5, 2011

  • H3 Biomedicine: Health, Hope and Heaps of Japanese Funding

    Bio-IT World | The dedication of oncology drug company H3 Biomedicine's sparkling new laboratories in the heart of Kendall Square is more notable for the liberating and possibly unique funding from Japan drug maker Eisai Co., which is provding $200 million over ten years to allow the company to focus on the science of drug discovery and development.  

     

    Dec 2, 2011

  • Why It's Open Science for Allen Brain Institute

    Wall Street Journal | The Allen Institute for Brain Science chose to make all of its data freely available online in an effort to accelerate research on brain diseases. The institute decided in 2002 that the best way to propel neuroscience forward would be to build a molecular-level, three-dimensional map of the mouse brain and give it away. 

    Dec 1, 2011

  • How Data Handling Could Stall Genomic Medicine

    New York Times | BGI's sequencers are now producing the equivalent of 2,000 human genomes a day, and shipping the results to customers via FedEx. Data handling is now the major bottleneck of the genomics industry and it could delay the day when DNA sequencing is used in medicine.

    Nov 30, 2011

  • Science in Thrall to FDA

    Bio-IT World | The Skeptical Outsider | Risk aversion is the inherent enemy of progress. In a free society we can each seek our own balance, accepting the consequences. But when entrenched interests are allowed to thwart attempts by innovators and entrepreneurs to challenge the status quo, we all pay the price. As America slides into malaise and decline, nowhere is this more evident than in our passive acceptance of the absolute power of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration—even in the face of certain death. It need not be so.

    Nov 30, 2011

  • The British are Coming: Connecting People and Patients

    Bio-IT World | Why would a chemist who has worked for some of the leading bio-IT companies of the 15-20 years, including Celera Genomics, Applied Biosystems, D.E. Shaw Ventures and IBM, find himself working for the company formerly known as British Telecom? “I was just as surprised,” said Yury Rozenman, who is BT Global Services’ head of marketing strategy and solution development for life sciences. 

    Nov 28, 2011

  • Survey Says: Tool Up for Smarter Clinical Studies

    Bio-IT World | Separate industry surveys by information technology research and advisory firm Gartner and global software company ClearTrial make a strong case for clinical resource management tools in the cost-cutting arsenal of biopharmaceutical and medical device companies.  

     

    Nov 27, 2011

  • Cycle Computing Announces BigScience Challenge Finalists

    Compute Cycles Blog | Cycle Computing announced the finalists of the CycleCloud BigScience Challenge at Supercomputing 11. They will announce a grand prize winner who will recieve $12,5000 worth of computing time.

    Nov 22, 2011

  • Washington University unveils 'GPS' cancer gene sequencing panel

    Washington University |  A new medical service called Genomics and Pathology Services at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (GPS@WUSTL) plans to offer a new sequencing test for mutations in 28 cancer-associated genes, which can be ordered by physicians across the U.S. to simultaneously examine a group of genes likely to influence treatment of a patient’s tumor.

    Nov 22, 2011

  • An Insider Perspective on PAREXEL

    Bio-IT World | Mark Goldberg, PAREXEL’s chief operating officer, recently sat down with Bio•IT World chief editor Kevin Davies to discuss the importance of convergence in Perceptive Informatics’ suite of eClinical offerings, and to share his insights on the future opportunities, trends, and challenges facing the industry. 

    Nov 21, 2011