• Seven Bridges Leads Public-Private Partnership To Develop New Data Ecosystem For NIH

    Bio-IT World Brief | Seven Bridges today announced that it has been selected by the NIH to support the NIH Data Commons Pilot Phase. The Data Commons Pilot Phase is NIH’s latest effort to accelerate biomedical research through informatics. Seven Bridges will lead a team consisting of Repositive, Elsevier, and the Boston Veterans Affair Research Institute. Together, they are forming a private-public consortium called FAIR4CURES.

    Nov 6, 2017

  • Josh Denny On The All Of Us Research Program, Data Management On A National Scale

    Bio-IT World | Vanderbilt University has been biobanking patient specimens since 2007 when Josh Denny launched BioVU. Today, the biobank has nearly 250,000 samples, some of which have associated medical records dating back to the early 1980s. Josh Denny, who leads the All of Us Research Program Data and Research Center, hopes the Precision Medicine Initiative will empower the same kind of studies.

    Nov 6, 2017

  • What It's Really Like To Fundraise From Silicon Valley's VCs

    CNBC | So-called biotech rebel Ethan Perlstein describes fundraising as a whole lot of rejections and "crippling self-doubt," but he got through it. Here are the three biggest lessons he learned.

    Nov 3, 2017

  • A New Class: Protein-Protein Interactions As Drug Targets

    Bio-IT World | Since the onset of targeted drug discovery, a little before the turn of the millennium, intracellular drug targets have primarily been enzymes that catalyze reactions. However, a new type of intracellular drug target—Protein-Protein Interactions—are now expanding the space in which to search for new types of medicines.

    Nov 3, 2017

  • Gut Microbes Can Shape Responses To Cancer Immunotherapy

    Nature News & Comment | Studies find that species diversity and antibiotics influence cutting-edge treaments.

    Nov 2, 2017

  • 23andMe, Veeva Systems, Edico Genome, And More: News From October 2017

    Bio-IT World | October featured exciting new, products, and partnerships from around the bio-IT community from innovating companies, organizations, and universities, including 23andMe, Veeva Systems, Edico Genome, and more.

    Nov 2, 2017

  • Eugenics 2.0: We’re At The Dawn Of Choosing Embryos By Health, Height, And More

    MIT Technology Review | Will you be among the first to pick your kids' IQ? As machine learning unlocks predictions from DNA databases, scientists say parents could have choices never before possible.

    Nov 1, 2017

  • 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