Populations With Unique Enzymes More Susceptible To COVID-19, Other News

Bio-IT World | Researchers from Cleveland Clinic have found unique genetic susceptibility to COVID-19 across populations in ACE2 and TMPRSS2. Elsewhere, the University of California Health has developed a unified, secure data set for use in COVID-19 research. This, plus more, is included in this week’s COVID-19 news from the biotech and research industries.

In The Midst Of A Pandemic, Duplex Sequencing Comes Of Age

Bio-IT World | Duplex Sequencing, a technique for improving the accuracy of next-generation sequencing by more than 10,000-fold, could eliminate a good deal of the guesswork in advancing drugs to market.

Breaking Silos to Enable Breakthroughs

Bio-IT World | TRENDS FROM THE TRENCHES | For most big pharma and other global enterprises, decades of growth have resulted in siloed operations, even as they seek breakthrough medicines. It is time for such a breakthrough; as an industry, we’re overdue.

Illumina Launches TruSight Software Suite, Accelerating Identification of Genetic Diseases

Bio-IT World News Brief | Illumina, in collaboration with Mayo Clinic and other key opinion leaders, has launched its TruSight Software Suite in an effort to bring turn-key data analysis solutions to accelerate and facilitate the adoption of whole-genome sequencing.

Study Says Prior Infection Could Prevent Reinfection, Other COVID-19 News

Bio-IT World | Animal models are showing how prior infection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can provide protection against reinfection. Elsewhere, a coronavirus task force task force is examining genes associated with COVID-19 immune response by collecting samples from Japanese patients. This, plus more, are featured in this week’s COVID-19 news from the biotech and research industries.

Virtual Twins: Their Roles In Healthcare, Drug Discovery, And Pandemic Response

Bio-IT World | In a world that has shifted to virtual everything—work, recreation, connection—it’s no wonder that virtual or digital twins are getting more attention. It’s certainly a favorite term of marketers: we are creating digital twins for everything from people to businesses, instruments to labs.

Can Your Data Protection Strategy Survive A Pandemic?

Bio-IT World Contributed Commentary | Across the world, scientific laboratories have redirected their research efforts toward the global COVID-19 pandemic. Achieving the goal of understanding and treating the virus requires the generating and gathering of data. Like any big shift in the way we generate, manage, or use data, this will have implications for the datacenter.

Bio-IT World Announces 2020 Innovative Practices Award Winners

Bio-IT World | Roche, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb, the University of Chicago, Massachusetts General Hospital, Mission: Cure, and the Pistoia Alliance have been announced as the winners of the 2020 Innovative Practices Awards.

How The SARS-CoV-19 Virus Attacks Cells, Other COVID-19 News

Bio-IT World | New research shows how the SARS-CoV-19 virus shifts the cell's activity to promote its own replication and to infect nearby cells. This, plus more, are featured in this week’s COVID-19 news from the biotech and research industries.

Saving Lives with Great Research Requires a Research Tech Rethink

Bio-IT World Contributed Commentary | Researchers are working hard to provide the evidence needed for fact-based decisions addressing everything from developing new vaccines, to ensuring existing treatments are being used to their best advantage. Now, more than ever, the time and funding allocated for these projects must be used to their fullest extent.

Bringing Light—and Value—to Dark Data in Research & Design

Bio-IT World Contributed Commentary | Data are often recognized as a top asset of organizations in any field, including the biosciences, but the way it’s handled may not adequately reflect this. One explanation for this mismatch is that the amount of data being produced every day is enormous—but not necessarily accessible.

Calculating Herd Immunity, Other COVID-19 News and Updates

Bio-IT World | Researchers are attempting to trace the emergence of COVID-19 in an effort to understand how pathogens jump from animals to humans. Meanwhile, mathematicians are developing a model estimating herd immunity. These updates, plus more, are featured in this week’s COVID-19 news from the biotech and research industries.

10x Genomics, Genestack, HudsonAlpha, And More: News From June 2020

Bio-IT World June featured exciting new, products, and partnerships from around the bio-IT community from innovating companies, organizations, and universities, including 10x Genomics, Genestack, HudsonAlpha, and more.

Paragon Applies Amplicon Panels for Targeted Sequencing To COVID-19

Bio-IT World | A key question for life sciences companies in the past few months has been how dramatically to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Paragon Genomics, based in Hayward, California, believes their amplicon-based target enrichment technology for targeted sequencing provides an answer.

EHRs + Machine Learning Decipher Drug Effects In Pregnant Persons

Bio-IT World | Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are using a novel, data-driven “target trial” framework to investigate the efficacy and safety of medicines in pregnant populations, who are underrepresented in randomized controlled trials.

Nanosponges Soak Up Virus, AI Tracks Mutations: The Week’s COVID-19 Updates

Bio-IT World | Questions are being raised about interferon’s role in treating SARS-CoV-2 infection, and the likelihood that it could inhibit lung tissue healing. And a new AI tool could track changes in the genetic structure of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Plus more from this week’s COVID-19 news and research in the clinical research industry.

Illumina Acquires BlueBee, Data Analysis, Management

Bio-IT World  Illumina announced that it will acquire the Netherlands-based bioinformatics company, BlueBee yesterday evening, giving the sequencing company another in-house bioinformatics platform, this one focused on downstream data analysis, management and collaboration. Financial details were not disclosed.

Follow the Money: $100M to DNAnexus, Investments in Machine-Learning for Drug Discovery, More

NIH Launches Centralized National Enclave For COVID-19 Patient Data

Bio-IT World The National Institutes of Health has launched a centralized, secure enclave to store and study vast amounts of medical record data from people diagnosed with coronavirus disease across the country. It is part of an effort, called the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C), to help scientists analyze these data to understand the disease and develop treatments. This effort aims to transform clinical information into knowledge urgently needed to study COVID-19, including health risk factors that indicate better or worse outcomes of the disease, and identify potentially effective treatments.

The Pistoia Alliance Launches Toolkit, Accelerates Implementation of FAIR Data Principles

Bio-IT World   The Pistoia Alliance has launched a freely accessible toolkit to help companies implement the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) guiding principles for data management and stewardship. The project was funded by pharmaceutical and biotech companies including AstraZeneca, Bayer, Roche, Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and AbbVie.