• Nanotechnology-Based Vaccine Candidate, Blood Type A Raises Risk, Neanderthal-Derived Protein Offers Protection: COVID-19 Updates

    Bio-IT World I Variant that emerged in the UK could be more transmissible, SARS-CoV-2 may be particularly attracted to blood group A respiratory cells, a balanced T cell response is key to clearing virus without symptoms, and out-of-place large bone marrow cells responsible for brain fog. Plus: Heart muscle cells a target and could lead to cell death, interfere with heart muscle contraction and MIS-C patients have highly activated immune systems that are similar to adult COVID-19 patients.

    Mar 5, 2021

  • Spatial Surge: AGBT Updates On Single-Cell and Spatial Genomics, In Situ Analysis, More

    Bio-IT World | A host of sponsors and vendor companies attended the virtual AGBT General Meeting this week. Through sponsored talks and even more poster sessions, vendor companies shared their latest work and technology developments and made product announcements.

    Mar 4, 2021

  • CRISPR For COVID-19: Approaches To Speeding Therapeutic Discovery

    Bio-IT World | Neville Sanjana from the New York Genome Center and NYU turned his attention to COVID-19 early in the pandemic. For several years, his lab has focused on using CRISPR to identify which regions of the genome drive disease. Last year, he applied that expertise to using genome-wide CRISPR screens to look for COVID-19 risk factors.

    Mar 3, 2021

  • Building A Telomere-to-Telomere Human Pangenome Reference

    Bio-IT World | Our current version of the human reference genome does not adequately represent genetic diversity in the human population, Karen Miga told the virtual audience at this week’s AGBT General Meeting. The Human Pangenome Reference Consortium and the Telomere-to-Telomere Consortium are working to change that.

    Mar 2, 2021

  • Updates To All of Us, First Genomic Results Returned To Participants

    Bio-IT World | Josh Denny, CEO of NIH’s All of Us program, gave an update on the population sequencing program in the opening session of the virtual AGBT General Meeting this week.

    Mar 1, 2021

  • More Immunological Updates for SARS-CoV-2 Infection, Modeling New Drugs: COVID-19 Updates

    Bio-IT World | More insights into how the immune system reacts to SARS-CoV-2 infection, docking analysis predicts new COVID-19 drugs, and impacts of temperature and humidity. Plus: correlating COVID-19 symptoms and genetic profiles.

    Feb 26, 2021

  • Linus’ Law: What greater collaboration could do for scientific research

    Bio-IT World | Having spent the last decade with one foot in the door of the scientific research world, and the other foot in the door of the software world, I have viscerally experienced a fundamental flaw in how scientific research is done today: collaboration among scientists is severely lacking.

    Feb 25, 2021

  • African Centers of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Data-Intensive Sciences: Building The Technology Foundations For Global Growth

    Bio-IT World | Information technology has become a fundamental research tool for the international biomedical research community. That’s why NIAID has been building the African Centers of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Data-Intensive Science in Mali and Uganda. Equipping scientists in Africa with bioinformatics tools and technologies has come with some unique challenges, but also promises untold returns.

    Feb 23, 2021

  • Modeling New Drug Options, Better Look At Immune Response, Impact of Chromosome 12: COVID-19 Updates

    Bio-IT World | Specialized cells in a child’s immune system rapidly target SARS-CoV-2, nasal antiviral blocks transmission in ferrets, machine learning used for drug repurposing, insight into how the virus attacks mucus membrane cells, and a CDC update on anaphylaxis after vaccination. Plus: Fauci on known variants of the virus.

    Feb 19, 2021

  • Novel Approach Measures Tau Changes That Correlate With Dementia Stage

    Bio-IT World | The chemistry of tau protein in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients looks different at early and later stages of the disease, suggesting it could serve as a biomarker of disease progression. Although dementia researchers have historically focused almost entirely on abnormal accumulations of beta-amyloid, tau correlates better with cognitive decline and thus understanding its chemistry is key, says Judith Steen, Ph.D., associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.

    Feb 18, 2021

  • Using Chromatography Data Systems to Drive Control, Compliance, Productivity

    Bio-IT World | In the modern-day analytical laboratory, chromatography and mass spectrometry (MS) are increasingly seen working side by side. These complementary techniques provide powerful insight into the quantity, size, and structure of a wide range of analytes. But despite the combined power of these systems, the practical instrumentation, data management and reporting are often anything but connected.

    Feb 17, 2021

  • Data Wrangling: Priming UK Biobank Data to Drive Discovery

    Bio-IT World | TRENDS FROM THE TRENCHES | Biopharma’s new superheroes are the data wranglers who have equal access to the rich data sets available through the UK Biobank project. In pharma and biotech, these professionals work at the next level of data management going beyond traditional and straightforward data extraction, transformation, and loading processes to bring knowledge from the data.

    Feb 16, 2021

  • Hallmarks of a Super-Spreader, Spike Pattern of the 1928 Pandemic, Airborne Transmission Model: COVID-19 Updates

    Bio-IT World | New machine learning framework estimates asymptomatic cases, helium microscope used to visualize SARS CoV-2, SARS CoV-2 mutations develop in single patient, and new vaccine platforms. Plus: clinicians at UCI Health develop successful system for monoclonal antibody delivery, New Yorkers are responding more favorably to the new COVID-19 vaccine, and old drugs may be repurposed as COVID-19 treatments.

    Feb 12, 2021

  • A Deep Dive On mRNA Vaccines

    Bio-IT World | Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines were the focus of a symposium on COVID-19 vaccines held during last week’s COVID-19 and Cancer virtual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. To date, only two vaccines have received Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and both are mRNA vaccines—one developed by Moderna and the other by Pfizer and BioNTech.

    Feb 11, 2021

  • Sema4 Announces Merger With CM Life Sciences

    Bio-IT World | Sema4 announced its planned merger with CM Life Sciences today. The transaction combines Sema4’s leading AI- and machine learning-powered integrated genomic and clinical open-architecture data platform, with CM Life Sciences, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, sponsored by affiliates of Casdin Capital, LLC and Corvex Management LP. The transaction is expected to provide up to $793 million in immediate cash proceeds.

    Feb 10, 2021

  • The Future of Our Blood Supply Chain is Digital

    Bio-IT World | The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our nation’s blood supply was not very apparent in public discussion. And yet the radical shifts in the demand for blood products, and the availability thereof, should be studied and analyzed to improve the robustness and resilience of our blood supply.

    Feb 10, 2021

  • GenomePaint: Interactive Visualization of the Genome

    Bio-IT World | The computational biology team at St. Jude has published the latest on GenomePaint, one of the visualization features in the St. Jude Cloud platform, in the January issue of Cancer Cell.

    Feb 9, 2021

  • Heparin Inhibits SARS-CoV-2, How Mutations Escape Immune Response, Retraining Generic Antibodies: COVID-19 Updates

    Bio-IT World | Genetic sequence deletions help SARS-CoV-2 escape antibodies, molecular behavior of COVID-19 drugs, and the latest COVID-19 forecasts include two new variants. Plus: N439K variant shows two-fold increase in binding affinity and heparin inhibits SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, could be repurposed.

    Feb 5, 2021

  • AI-Based Approach Crunches Real-World Data To Emulate Clinical Trials

    Bio-IT World | A computer scientist at The Ohio State University (OSU) recently demonstrated the potential of artificial intelligence to crunch real-world data and emulate randomized clinical trials, speeding the pace of drug repurposing.

    Feb 4, 2021

  • Is Precision Medicine Ready For Data From Billions Of Cells?

    Bio-IT World | Popular opinion is that two big shifts have changed the game for bioinformatics. The first is single cell ‘omics, the other is a more recent move to a new model of drug discovery that looks to leverage the vast amounts of human genetic data now being generated in support of precision medicine. But to achieve datasets with the 100,000s of patients and treatment conditions that are needed for statistical power in pharma R&D and precision medicine, IT tools to manage billions of cells are essential.

    Feb 3, 2021