• Third Rock Bets $40 Million On Blueprint Medicines

    Boston Globe | Boston venture capital firm Third Rock Ventures is pumping $40 million into Blueprint Medicines, a new company founded by the discoverers of Gleevec that will develop targeted therapies for cancer.

    Apr 11, 2011

  • Biomatters Adds New Algorithms

    Bio-IT World | Biomatters' Geneious Server has added several new algorithms and improved capabilities to easily offload high-intensity processing to computer clusters straight from researchers’ desktops. Combined with the user-friendly Geneious Pro desktop software, researchers will have a wider choice of algorithms and direct access to the full power of their institution’s computing grid or cluster. 

    Apr 10, 2011

  • Making Medical Treatment Claims Patent-Eligible Subject Matter After Prometheus v. Mayo: A Prescription for Success

    Bio-IT World | Guest Commentary | Recently, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reaffirmed its earlier ruling on patentability of medical treatment methods in Prometheus Laboratories v. Mayo Collaborative Services, after remand from the United States Supreme Court, post-Bilski, which held that a method of hedging in the energy commodities as an unpatentable abstract idea. So what is the prescription for making a medical treatment patent-eligible subject matter, and why should you be interested?

    Apr 7, 2011

  • Complete Genomics Makes 29 Genome Public

    By Bio IT World Staff April 7, 2011 | Complete Genomics announced yesterday that it has added 29 high coverage, complete human genome sequences to its public genomic repository. Combined with the 40 genome datasets that Complete Genomics released on

    Apr 6, 2011

  • The State of Mutation Curation

    Bio-IT World | It is a testament to David Cooper’s drive and perseverance that his Human Gene Mutation Database (HGMD; www.hgmd.org) is the most comprehensive source of human mutation data currently available. “I hope it is a tremendous resource, because we’re not aware of any direct competitors,” says Cooper, a human molecular geneticist at Cardiff University’s Institute of Medical Genetics in Wales. 

    Apr 6, 2011

  • Wolfram Finds Few Answers Searching His Personal Genome

    Bio-IT World | As part of his long-standing interest in making the world’s knowledge computable, Stephen Wolfram is taking a long look at model genomes, not least his own. Last year, the British science prodigy, CEO of Wolfram Research, and developer of Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha, had his own genome sequenced by Illumina. Wolfram recently spoke to Bio-IT World and offered a preview of his keynote at Bio-IT World Expo on April 12.

    Apr 4, 2011

  • Batter Up: A Stratified Approach to Rheumatoid Arthritis

    Bio-IT World | Mark Curran, senior director of immunology biomarkers at Centocor R&D, joined the organization five years ago and was tasked with a broad mission: to supply biomarkers to various compound-development teams and discovery R&D at Centocor R&D. Curran spoke with Bio•IT World managing editor, Allison Proffitt, about his vision for stratified medicine at Centocor R&D and the new Biomarkers of Anti-TNF Treatment Efficacy in Rheumatoid Arthritis-Unresponsive Populations (BATTER-UP) consortium announced in November.

    Apr 4, 2011

  • New Study Reveals 1 Million Human Genome Sequence Errors Across Two NGS Platforms

    Bio-IT World | “What does it mean to have a ‘healthy’ genome?” That was the question that University of Utah geneticist Mark Yandell and colleagues set out to address in an important recent paper in the journal Genetics in Medicine. Among the key conclusions: there are 1.1 million discrepancies when the identical human genome sample is sequenced using two popular next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms.

    Apr 1, 2011

  • Carole Goble: Democratizing Informatics for the ‘Long Tail’ Scientist

    March 31, 2011 | In 1979, Carole Goble went to the University of Manchester to study computer science, and never looked back. She has helped create and/or develop a host of life science tools including Taverna, myExperiment, and BioCatalogue, all in the name of democratizing informatics. Goble recently spoke to Bio•IT World editor-in-chief Kevin Davies about her mission to democratize informatics for life sciences. 

    Mar 31, 2011

  • Bioinformatics for Traditional Chinese Medicine

    Wall Street Journal | University of Sydney computer scientist researchers are using new technology to investigate old treatments. The researchers are using algorithms to determine the efficacy of Chinese herbal treatments using data supplied by the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in Beijing.

    Mar 29, 2011

  • Cray Supercomputer Planned for 20 Petaflops

    Tech Eye | Cray will construct a new supercomputer, dubbed Titan, that will be able to achieve 20 petaflops, far above the 2.5 petaflop record currently held by the Chinese Tianhe-1A.

    Mar 27, 2011

  • Bayer Report Asia Pacific Growth

    Bio-IT World | SINGAPORE—Earlier this week, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals reported 5.8% sales growth for Asia Pacific, compared to global growth of 0.9%. Company representatives listed a strong pipeline, double-digit growth in several emerging Asian markets, and a secure patent situation as foundations for the company’s position.   

     

    Mar 25, 2011

  • Ending Diagnostic Odysseys the Wisconsin Way

    NGS Leaders | For the past several years, the Medical College of Wisconsin's Howie Jacob has been telling everyone that genomic sequencing will reach the clinic by about 2014. It turns out he was a little late. As Kevin Davies explains on NGS Leaders, Jacob and colleagues are blazing a trail for applying whole-genome sequencing for seriously ill patients with undiagnosed disorders. 

    Mar 24, 2011

  • Funding the Future of Biotech

    Xconomy | In a two part Xconomy article, Stewart Lyman details how pharma and biotech, along with the federal government, fund most biomedical research in the US, but there are other sources of capital that can drive drug discovery and development.

    Mar 24, 2011

  • EMC Announces Data Hero Awards

    Bio-IT World | EMC Corporation has announced the Data Hero Awards 2011, a far-reaching program to honor those individuals and organizations exploring innovative uses of Big Data technologies and techniques. These often-unsung Data Heroes are at the forefront of pioneering solutions that have a profound impact on the way individuals, organizations, entire industries and societies live and work.

    Mar 23, 2011

  • Quest Buys Celera for $657 million

    Reuters | Quest Diagnostics said on Friday it will pay $8/share for Celera, a $657 million bid. The gene sequencing company founded by Craig Venter, has a promising genetic testing pipeline in cardiovascular disease, cancer, and neurological disorders.

    Mar 20, 2011

  • Putting Medical Records Data Through its Paces

    Bio-IT World | The Partnership to Advance Clinical electronic Research or PACeR was created to “convene the users and the collectors of the data to understand how we can safely reuse electronic medical record data to facilitate clinical research,” explains David Krusch, chief medical information officer at the University of Rochester Medical Center and chair of the PACeR leadership committee.

    Mar 11, 2011

  • Pore Science: Oxford and the 15-Minute Genome?

    The Economist | The Economist looks at Oxford Nanorpore's nanopore sequencing. “So the current state of the art spends between five and ten days just preparing the DNA,” said Gordon Sanghera, CEO at Oxford Nanopore.

    Mar 11, 2011

  • UC Davis’ Jonathan Eisen Wins 2011 Benjamin Franklin Award

    Bio-IT World | Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary geneticist and professor in the Genome Center at University of California, Davis, has been named the winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award for 2011 by the Bioinformatics Organization.  

    Mar 15, 2011

  • FDA Panel Recommends Physican Input for Genetic Tests

    Medpage Today | At the FDA's Molecular and Clinical Genetics Advisory Panel last week, the panel again recommended that certain at-home genetic tests not be used without the involvement of a physician or genetic specialist.

    Mar 11, 2011