• News And Notes From The Leaders In Biobanking Congress 2017

    Bio-IT World | The 9th annual Leaders in Biobanking Congress was held last week in Nashville, Tennessee. The conference featured lectures from prominent experts in the field of diagnostics and biobanking, and included discussions on topics of clinical research and precision medicine, which often go hand in hand. Here are just a few highlights from the program.

    Nov 1, 2017

  • BGI’s MGI Tech Launches Two New NGS Platforms

    Bio-IT World Brief | BGI’s subsidiary, MGI Tech, launched two new next generation genetic sequencers, MGISEQ-2000 and MGISEQ-200, at the 12th International Conference on Genomics (ICG-12) in Shenzhen.

    Oct 31, 2017

  • NIH-Funded Research Provides Insight Into Genomic Variations And Their Effects On Our Bodies

    Bio-IT World | The National Institutes of Health has been busy lately, researching ways to distinguish genomic variations that determine skin color, hair color, disease susceptibility, and other factors.

    Oct 30, 2017

  • Getting The Cloud To Work For Genomics

    Bio-IT World Contributed Commentary | As in other industries, the cloud holds the promise of flexible, globally accessible, and scalable genomics computing. Why is it, then, that – certain national initiatives aside – this promise has been so slow in materializing?

    Oct 30, 2017

  • BGI Launches George Church Institute

    Bio-IT World Brief  BGI announced yesterday a joint effort with George Church and launched the George Church Institute of Regenesis, located in the China National GeneBank in Shenzhen, China. Church reportedly accepted the appointment as the chief scientist of the Institute. BGI made the announcement at the 12th Annual Meeting of the International Conference on Genomics (ICG-12).

    Oct 27, 2017

  • The State Of CRISPR/Cas9: Patents And Possibilities

    Bio-IT World | A lot has been happening in the CRISPR playing field. The Charpentier/Broad Institute lawsuit over CRISPR/Cas9 patent claims allows insight into the potential of this technology.

    Oct 24, 2017

  • Tracking The Cost Of Gene Therapy

    MIT Technology Review | Though expensive now, prices could get cheaper for more common diseases.

    Oct 24, 2017

  • DNA Scan For Infants Raise Questions Of Privacy And Discrimination

    CBS News | Genetic counselors in Boston are offering new parents a controversial peek at their baby's future health.

    Oct 24, 2017

  • Leaders In Biobanking Congress: The Story So Far

    Bio-IT World | This week Bio-IT World will be in attendance at the 9th international Leaders in Biobanking Congress, which takes place October 25-27 in Nashville, Tennessee. We at Bio-IT World would like to take a moment to review stories we’ve covered in the past few months in preparation for this event.

    Oct 23, 2017

  • Children’s Hospital Of Philadelphia, Edico Set World Record For Secondary Analysis Speed

    Bio-IT World | Using Edico Genome’s DRAGEN pipeline on 1,000 Amazon EC2 F1 instances, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Edico Genome set a new scientific world standard last week in rapidly processing whole human genomes.

    Oct 23, 2017

  • News And Notes From ASHG 2017

    Bio-IT World Brief | The American Society of Human Genetics annual meeting took place this week in Orlando, Florida. Here are some of the product news and company announcements released over the course of the week. Highlights include the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Edico Genome’s world record-setting achievement, LifeOmic’s agreement with Genomenon, HudsonAlpha, and more.

    Oct 20, 2017

  • China Biotech Promise Struggles To Keep Foreign Innovators

    Bloomberg | As money rushes into China's fledgling biotechnology sector, Eli Lilly and other foreign drugmakers are scaling back.

    Oct 20, 2017

  • Observations On The Post-Mortem Tissue Donation Process For Biospecimen Research

    Bio-IT World Podcast | Sarah Gray of the American Association of Tissue Banks is featured on this podcast from Cambridge Healthtech Institute in preparation for the Leaders in Biobanking Congress. Topics include expectations about the process of donating post-mortem tissue for biospecimen research, possible process improvements to better serve patients, and more.

    Oct 19, 2017

  • The Latest AI Can Work Things Out Without Being Taught

    The Economist | IN 2016 Lee Sedol, one of the world's best players of Go, lost a match in Seoul to a computer program called AlphaGo by four games to one. It was a big event, both in the history of Go and in the history of artificial intelligence.

    Oct 18, 2017

  • How To Spend $1900 On Gene Tests Without Learning A Thing

    MIT Technology Review | Science and marketing clash in the "jungle" of direct-to-consumer DNA apps.

    Oct 18, 2017

  • GA4GH Announces New Strategic Plan, Vision To Create Standards

    Bio-IT World | At a plenary session this morning in Orlando, Florida, the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) announced a new vision and five-year strategic plan: GA4GH Connect, aiming to drive uptake of GA4GH standards and frameworks for genomic data discovery, analysis, and interpretation in order to enable responsible sharing of clinical-grade genomic data by 2022.

    Oct 17, 2017

  • China Welcomes Oxford Nanopore Technology

    Bio-IT World Brief | Oxford Nanopore sequencing technology is now available in China. The long-read, real-time, portable MinION sequencer is now being used by researchers across China, who are working on myriad DNA sequencing applications including: pathogen research, human genetics, plant genetics, animal genetics, and metagenomics.

    Oct 17, 2017

  • Illumina Ventures Closes $230 Million Fund

    Bio-IT World Brief | Illumina Ventures announced today that it has raised $230 million for its first fund. The balance of the funds have been raised from a mix of corporate, institutional, sovereign, and individual investors.

    Oct 16, 2017

  • Data Security And Cloud Providers: Assessing The Risks

    Bio-IT World Contributed Commentary | Research organizations are aware of the potential for cloud technologies to increase efficiency, cut costs, and reduce time to market. In the wake of the recent Equifax breach, the latest in a seemingly endless string of security incidents, organizations want to ensure they are protecting their assets and minimizing potential liabilities.

    Oct 13, 2017

  • FDA Vote Sets Stage For Gene Therapy’s Future

    MIT Technology Review | A first-of-its-kind medical treatment that replaces a mutated gene with a correct copy could soon be available in the U.S.

    Oct 12, 2017