• Microsoft’s Azure Cloud BLASTs a Challenge to Amazon

    Bio-IT World | Backing up the claim that cloud computing is its top strategic priority, Microsoft marked the beginning of this year’s Supercomuting conference (SC10) that by porting the sequence aligner BLAST to Windows Azure, it is releasing a major protein dataset that should not only be of value to researchers in its own right but also demonstrate the potential value of Microsoft’s Azure Cloud to the bioscience community.

    Nov 16, 2010

  • Hollywood Biology

    New York Times | Dr. Robert Lue of Harvard is animating the cell. A pioneer in molecular animation, Lue and others are applying computer-based animation from the film industry to biology.

    Nov 16, 2010

  • A Turnaround for Toxicogenomics?

    Bio-IT World | With a 90% drug attrition rate in clinical trials due primarily to the high incidence of adverse effects, there is a huge financial incentive for drug companies to develop methods that will quickly eliminate toxic compounds from the drug pipelines.

    Nov 15, 2010

  • Chinese Supercomputer Ranked Top in the World by Top500

    InformationWeek | China bests the US in the most recent Top500 list of the fastest supercomputers in the world. China's Tianhe-1A system in Tianjin achieved 2.57 petaflops per second to earn first place.

    Nov 15, 2010

  • EMC Buys Isilon for $2.25 billion

    Bloomberg | EMC announced yesterday that it had purchased Isilon Systems for $2.25 billion, pushing it deeper into the external-storage market.

    Nov 15, 2010

  • Complete Genomics' IPO Less Than Expected

    Xconomy | Complete Genomics' IPO this week came in lower than they had expected. Originally predicting $12-$14 per share, the initial prices was $9 per share and stock fell 11% the first day of trading, closing at $8.03.

    Nov 11, 2010

  • Gene Mutation Determines Patient Response to AML

    Med Page Today | Findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine pinpoint a gene with multiple mutations that seems to determine patient response to acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

    Nov 11, 2010

  • Futreal's Deeper and Wider Approach to Cancer Genomes

    Bio-IT World | Cancer researcher Andy Futreal at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute believes there is plenty of cause for optimism when it comes to sequencing cancer genomes. Speaking at the Frontiers in Cancer Science 2010 meeting in Singapore, Futreal catalogued the cancer advances over the past ten years of genome sequencing, and proposed future directions for the field.

    Nov 10, 2010

  • 454 Enters Partnership for Sequencing Semiconductor

    Bio-IT World | DNA Electronics and 454 Life Sciences have entered a partnership to develop a low-cost, high-throughput, long read, high density DNA sequencing system. The technology is expected to build on 454's current pyrosequencing-based platform.

    Nov 4, 2010

  • Biomatters Launches Next Gen Analysis Server

    Bio-IT World | Biomatters launched their newest software package yesterday, Geneious Server, to analyze next-generation sequencing data, and it's already found customers in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland.

    Nov 3, 2010

  • Lander’s Lessons Ten Years after the Human Genome Project

    Bio-IT World | If anyone was capable of distilling the lessons learned in the ten years since the first draft of the Human Genome Project in 2000, it was Broad Institute director Eric Lander in the opening address at the annual American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) convention in Washington, D.C.

    Nov 2, 2010

  • Databases Down Under

    Bio-IT World | BRISBANE—At TRX10, Translational Research Excellence, held last month in Brisbane, amid a wide-ranging program covering everything from stem cell models to commercializing academic innovations, translational approaches to cancer and central nervous system disease to trial design, discussion turned to repositories for genetic and clinical data. Researchers encouraged one another to share raw data, analyses, and clinical findings to further research and enable advances in medicine.

    Nov 2, 2010

  • IPOs for the Next Generation

    Xconomy & Wall Street Journal Blog | Last week Pacific Biosciences raised $200 million through its IPO, a number in the middle of its expected range. The IPO was also good news for Complete Genomics, which released an amended IPO prospectus raising its self valuation to $12 to $14/share.

    Oct 31, 2010

  • Novartis Investing, Expanding in Cambridge

    Boston Herald | Novartis is planning to add 300 new jobs and invest $600 million over the next five years to expand its research campus adjacent to the former Necco candy factory in Cambridge, Mass.

    Oct 28, 2010

  • The IP Picture for iPS Cells

    Bio-IT World Expert Commentary | An exciting recent advance in medicine has been the generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells which are derived from somatic cells, rather than embryos, through a process of “de-differentiation.” But the advance raises important intellectual property and patent questions.

    Oct 27, 2010

  • Sequence, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll: How Ozzy Osbourne Took a Bite Out Of His Genome

    Bio-IT World | Following the revelation in The Sunday Times that rock music legend Ozzy Osbourne has had his genome sequenced, Bio-IT World talks to the people at Cofactor Genomics, LIfe Technologies, and Knome who deciphered the Prince of Darkness' DNA.

    Oct 27, 2010

  • 1000 Genomes Project Completes its First Map of Human Genetic Variation

    The Guardian | Researchers have unveiled results from the pilot phase of the 1000 Genome Project, which aims to sequence the genetic code of 2,500 people. It is the most complete inventory yet of the millions of variations between people's DNA.

    Oct 27, 2010

  • Former ImClone CEO Makes $100 Million Acquisition

    Reuters | Sam Waksal, former ImClone CEO, has announced that his drug company Kadmon Pharmaceuticals has bought Three Rivers Pharmaceuticals and its treatments for hepatitis C.

    Oct 25, 2010

  • Free Amazon Micro Instance

    PC World | Amazon is offering free access to EC2 starting on Nov 1. The offer includes one year of access to a "micro instance", 750 hours' use per month.

    Oct 25, 2010

  • Placing the Target User First in Clinical Trial Technology

    Bio-IT World | Expert Commentary | In the past decade, clinical trial technology has undergone a series of evolutions in its design, capability and deployment. From the early days of remote data capture to full-suite clinical trial management solutions, this evolution is redefining clinical research. Yet despite its dominance, clinical research technology has suffered from significant resistance at the study site level, which can be traced to a deficit in one basic element: user-centered design. 

    Oct 25, 2010