July News and Product Briefs

August 2, 2013 | News briefs and products from around the industry including Illumina's acquisitions, new products for clinical sites and data virtualization, Comcast in health-IT, and more. 

 

Products 

 

Agilent Technologies has introduced an enhanced version of its Dissolution Workstation Software, providing better data integration, method change control and instrument monitoring for controlling multiple dissolution systems. Dissolution is a technique used in the pharmaceutical industry to determine the rate at which pure active pharmaceutical ingredients dissolve. The software supports laboratory capabilities to build, edit, search, retrieve, execute and archive all dissolution methods and test reports from a single interface. To improve efficiency, the new features allow users to: Consolidate and maintain electronic data in one location, with options for exporting information into a laboratory information management system or into business tools such as SAP Crystal Reports or Microsoft Excel; monitor the dissolution apparatus for vibration, environmental impacts and failure; comply with the latest enhanced mechanical qualification guidelines, including verifying accessories prior to each test; add an automated system-cleaning cycle to the end of each method, extending the life of dissolution equipment. Press release. 

 

PerkinElmer’s Operetta High Content Imaging System now includes new live cell capabilities, which will improve the ability for scientists researching cancer, stem cells and infectious diseases to perform live cell assays with higher throughput. The upgraded system is integrated with advanced informatics solutions like PerkinElmer's Columbus Image Data Storage and Analysis System and the TIBCO Spotfire to enable easy data sharing across multiple experiments. Provided below is a press release with more details. PerkinElmer Operetta 

 

Denodo Platform 5.0 is now available from Denodo Technologies, the latest version of Denodo´s award-winning Data Virtualization solution is the industry’s first technology platform that opens data virtualization to broader enterprise-wide use across agile business intelligence, Big Data analytics and agile development of connected applications for enterprise, Web, cloud, and mobile platforms. The new version enables organizations to abstract and expose all of their current and emerging information sources including databases, applications, Big Data, cloud and unstructured sources as canonical business entities, expressed as linked data services that are easy to discover, consume and govern. Denodo Technologies 

 

BioNano Genomics and the New York Genome Center (NYGC) have announced a strategic partnership between the two institutions that includes the purchase of an Irys System by NYGC. "For BioNano, demonstrating the ability to deliver a commercial-ready technology that can address the long-range information needs of a premier genome center like NYGC marks an important milestone. With their Irys System, the NYGC will now provide their direct research community with the most advanced long-read commercial technology to accelerate translational research and ultimately improve human health, consistent with the mission of this new center," said Todd Dickinson, Ph.D., vice president, Global Commercial Operations. BioNano Genomics 

 

ArisGlobal has released agCenter 3.1, a clinical research investigator site portal that facilitates and streamlines the communication and collaboration between sponsors and their clinical study sites.  agCenter addresses a key challenge that sponsors face in how to best retain and recruit investigators who often experience difficulties in meeting their study obligations, with many withdrawing out of sheer frustration. The investigator portal is the newest addition to ArisGlobal’s Total Clinical, a comprehensive platform for clinical research that includes EDC, CTMS, ePRO, medical coding, trial disclosure, supply chain management and safety reporting—all accessed via agWorld, a central clinical portal. Aris Global 

 

IMS Health’s Clinical Trials Optimization Solution (CTOS) group has released GrantPlan 3.5, the latest version of the company’s clinical trials cost benchmarking product. GrantPlan’s underlying database covers the cost range in more than 60 countries for more than 3,000 procedures, including 850 rating scales and questionnaires, and is used by nearly 100 different organizations – ranging from small biotech companies to top five CROs and Big Pharma. GrantPlan helps trial and project managers worldwide forecast, budget and negotiate investigator grants. It leverages the breadth and depth of IMS Health data, supporting complexity calculations for study budgets based on data mining of tens of thousands of grants—pulling out which indications, patient and procedure types increase costs beyond the expected range. The new versions adds improvements in the area of emerging country budgets, shortcuts to the most frequently used procedures for a protocol’s therapeutic area, and key cost data for US-based institutions and their standard overhead and startup costs. IMS Health 

 

News Briefs 

 

Comcast Business, a unit of Comcast Cable, has announced that the Inspira Health Network, which combines South Jersey Healthcare and Underwood-Memorial Hospital, is using Comcast Ethernet services to transfer high-resolution radiology images, internal office communications and documents, and electronic medical records (EMRs). The Ethernet network solution will provide the necessary bandwidth to improve collaboration among physicians across multiple locations, while also paving the way for the healthcare organization to launch new online initiatives that will improve patient care for the local community. Inspira Health Network has more than 5,100 employees and 1,000 medical staff, the organization includes the SJH Regional Medical Center, SJH Elmer Hospital, SJH Bridgeton Health Center, Underwood-Memorial Hospital and dozens of outpatient sites throughout the region. Comcast Enterprise 

 

Syapse has joined the Free the Data! Initiative (see, The Price of Free Data), the consortium that aims to fill the public information gap caused by the lack of available genetic information for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Syapse will provide the software infrastructure for the Free the Data! initiative, enabling powerful data mining, visualization, and reporting. Participants will be able to visualize their own variations and clinical data in comparison to those already in the database, while clinicians will be able to use variant interpretation in medical interactions. Researchers, industry, and others can utilize Syapse data mining tools to interrogate the variants, interpretation, and evidence, along with clinical data submitted by participants. Participants will have full control over data sharing and privacy preferences of the data they contribute. The campaign will strongly recommend that all variants be shared with ClinVar, the National Institutes of Health public database. Press release. 

 

Illumina acquired Advanced Liquid Logic, a provider of liquid handling solutions for laboratory/clinic R&D. Illumina says Advanced Liquid has "developed a proprietary digital microfluidics technology based on electrowetting that precisely manipulates small droplets within a sealed disposable cartridge to perform complex laboratory protocols." The tech will be used to improve the DNA sequencing workflow for Illumina's products. Seeking Alpha 

 

The 100K Genome Project, led by the University of California, Davis, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, and Agilent Technologies, has added 20 newly completed genome sequences of foodborne disease-causing microorganisms to its public database at the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The genomes were determined using Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT) Sequencing technology from Pacific Biosciences. This brings to 30 the number of genomic sequences completed by the 100K Genome Project, which aims to sequence the genomes of 100,000 bacterial and viral genomes to speed the diagnosis and treatment of foodborne diseases, as well as shorten the duration and limit the spread of foodborne illness outbreaks. The newly deposited sequences include several isolates of Salmonella, Listeria, Campylobacter, and Vibrio, as well as a full characterization of their epigenomes. Press release. 

 

Cynvenio Biosystems, a cancer diagnostics company focused on the molecular analysis of tumor biomarkers derived from whole blood, announced CLIA certification for its sequencing laboratory in Westlake Village, California. “Cynvenio has achieved an enviable level of operational excellence for its LiquidBiopsy service which includes the isolation of circulating tumor cells and their genomic analysis by next generation sequencing,” said Andreas Bakker, Ph.D., vice president of Operations at Cynvenio Biosystems, Inc. Cynvenio Biosystems 

 

PerkinElmer and Integromics have announced a strategic alliance such that PerkinElmer will be the sole worldwide distributor of Integromics’ software for the TIBCO Spotfire data visualization platform. In addition, PerkinElmer and Integromics announced the release of OmicsOffice 5.0, developed by Integromics. The new OmicsOffice software will be exclusively available from PerkinElmer under the agreement. OmicsOffice allows users of TIBCO Spotfire to handle, process, analyze and properly visualize diverse genomics data. The software provides scientists with a rich and flexible set of statistical and functional analysis tools specifically for the study and cross-validation of microarray, next generation sequencing and qPCR data on a single platform, and allows them to extract relevant and reliable biological conclusions from genomic data. Using OmicsOffice, genomics scientists can significantly improve the quality of their results, as they respond to scalability and integration challenges in this rapidly evolving field. Press release. 

 

Good Start Genetics has received a clinical laboratory permit from the New York State Department of Health to provide its GoodStart Select carrier screening tests to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and other reproductive health practitioners in the state. GoodStart Select, the company’s menu of carrier screening tests, detects far more disease-causing mutations than any other carrier screening test routinely used in clinical practice. With this license, Good Start becomes the first laboratory to offer extensively validated NGS-based carrier screening in New York, where nearly 25 percent of all reproductive health carrier screening is performed each year. Press release [PDF] 

 

Maverix Biomics has appointed Paul J. Pickering PhD as Chief Operating Officer. Pickering joins Maverix from Life Technologies where he held a variety of executive roles. Most recently he was General Manager and head of the Digital PCR Business Unit at Life Technologies. Pickering will lead all business functions from customer awareness through post-sales support for the Maverix cloud-based analytic platform for NGS or high throughput genomic sequence data. The Maverix Analytic Platform, a finalist in the 2013 Bio-IT World Best of Show competition, leverages proven open source algorithms and applications which are preconfigured based on published journal articles. Researchers can collaborate and securely share private data and access data from public genome databases. Data visualization is provided through integrated graphical tools, including a cloud-based, private UCSC Genome Browser. Press release [PDF]