• Scientists Identify Druggable Target in Schizophrenia CNV

    Medscape | Scientists at UCSD have identified a copy number variant (CNV) in 1 in 300 schizophrenia patients that contains the gene for a known neuropeptide receptor called VIPR2, presenting a new and highly druggable target against the disorder. 

    Feb 4, 2011

  • Linking Data: New Life for Semantic Technologies

    Bio-IT World | A small software company formed by a group of former IBM staffers is breathing new life into semantic technologies. But don’t look for Cambridge Semantics to harp on the term. “The world of people well versed in semantic technology is still quite small,” says co-founder Lee Feigenbaum. “It’s important that anyone working with our software should not be IT... We can’t build our software without these technologies, but we’ve no interest in preaching that you’re using semantics.”

    Jan 26, 2011

  • A Prescription for Transforming Clinical Trials

    Bio-IT World | Becky Kush believes we still have work to do on clinical trials. The president and CEO of the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) says, “We haven’t done the real transformational move yet that’s really new and different. And the process is broken.”

    Jan 26, 2011

  • BGI Cloud on the Horizon

    Bio-IT World | SHENZHEN, CHINA—Tianjian Chen, an architect in BGI’s computing platform group and a key engineer in the development of BGI’s new cloud computing resource, is 26 years old. No wonder his colleagues call him the “old man” of the team. 

    Jan 26, 2011

  • Pfizer to Close UK Research Facility

    BBC News | Pfizer has announced it will close its R&D facility in Kent, England, which employs 2,400 people. The move has raised concerns that the UK is losing highly-skilled jobs although Pfizer insists the decision is not a reflection on the quality of UK research, 

    Feb 1, 2011

  • The New Normal for Clinical Development

    Bio-IT World | An assortment of emerging clinical trial technologies over the past decade are providing creative ways for pharmaceutical companies and clinical research organizations (CROs) to boost the quality, pace, and efficiency of their drug development programs. The promise is sporadically realized by companies that selectively and appropriately apply these tools and use timely and visible performance metrics as the basis for relationship-building with clinical investigators. Working recipes are not often diligently followed, however. Thus clinical trials performance, in the main, remains dreadful.

    Jan 26, 2011

  • A Preview of Bio-IT World Expo 2011

    Bio-IT World | On April 12-14, Bio•IT World will host its tenth annual conference. All signs point to this being the biggest and most exciting event yet, with two new conference tracks added by popular demand, bringing the total to nine; more than a dozen pre-conference workshops; and a record number of exhibitors. All the regular highlights are there as well, including the 2011 Best Practices Awards dinner, the Benjamin Franklin Award (presented by Bioinformatics.org), and the Best of Show exhibit prizes. Here are just a few of the potential highlights.

    Jan 26, 2011

  • Oxford Nanopore Spikes Sequencing Field with GridION System

    Bio-IT World | It’s hardly an all-out media blitz, but Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) has finally sneaked the first details of its next-generation sequencing playbook, a highly configurable prototype sequencing system dubbed GridION. 

     

     

    Jan 27, 2011

  • RainDance Closes $37.5m in Financing

    Bio-IT World | RainDance Technologies closed a $37.5 million Series D financing. According to the company, RainDance will use the funding to drive new applications for its commercial targeted sequencing and sequence enrichment solution in the medical genetics and research markets, as well as grow the company's global sales and support infrastructure. 

    Jan 25, 2011

  • DataCore Announces VDI Benchmarks

    BrianMadden.com | DataCore Software has announced benchmark results and a research paper reporting less than $35 per desktop for platform hardware and a total system cost of less than $70 per vDesktop for all hardware and software.

    Jan 24, 2011

  • Government to Fund Drug Research

    New York Times | The government's new drug development center, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, isn't intended to be comptetitive with the private sector, says NIH director Francis Collins. The center is slated to open in October and will be one of the 27 centers and institutes under the National Institutes of Health.

    Jan 24, 2011

  • Pfizer Signs $632m Deal for Biotech

    Seattle Times | Pfizer is paying $632 million in a research collaboration with Theraclone Sciences, a Seattle-based biotech working on antibody drugs for cancer and infectious diseases.

    Jan 20, 2011

  • 2011 Best Practices Deadline Extension

    Bio-IT World | Bio-IT World is announcing a deadline extension for its 2010 Best Practices awards program. In keeping with extensions given in previous years, the 2011 extended deadline is February 4.

    Jan 20, 2011

  • ONC Releases Final Certification Rule

    Bio-IT World Expert Commentary | New details of the health information technology (HIT) permanent certification program have been released, and it appears that the federal government will be leaning heavily on the private sector to oversee the electronic health records (EHR) certification process.

    Jan 18, 2011

  • Banking on Biosimilars

    Reuters | Several announcements recently have illustrated that drugmakers are seeing money in generics. Merck just struck a deal with Parexel to create biosimilars.  

    Jan 13, 2011

  • Scripps Study: When It Comes to Genomics, Consumers Can Handle the Truth

    Bio-IT World | An important Scripps study on consumer attitudes to personal genomics testing, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that most individuals are perfectly capable of handling genome-wide data, and may help counter much of the mythology that has arisen surrounding the public's supposed inability to handle personal genetic information.  

     

    Jan 12, 2011

  • The Institute for Systems Biology Orders 615 Complete Genomics Genomes

    Bio-IT World | The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) and Complete Genomics have signed an agreement that calls for Complete Genomics to sequence 615 complete human genome samples as part of an ISB study on neurodegenerative diseases.

    Jan 13, 2011

  • Illumina Strikes Back in Gene Machine Wars With MiSeq

    Forbes.com | Illumina is launching a smaller, more affordable next-generation sequencing machine, the MiSeq, which will cost $125,000 and will provide some competition for the newly released Personal Genome Machine from Ion Torrent.

    Jan 12, 2011

  • Portal Partnering: Connecting Pharma and CROs

    Comment | The contract research market grew 13% in 2009, reaching $23.5 billion, according to the Contract Research Annual Review 2010 report. But as these partnerships with contract research organizations become more common, it will become essential for firms to establish collaborative communications with their partners. A partner portal, connecting the sponsor with the CRO, is an effective platform to achieve these goals.

    Jan 10, 2011

  • Biogen Fills Head R&D Position

    Boston Globe | Biogen Idec has filled its head of research and operations position, a job that has been empty since October 2009.

    Jan 6, 2011