• Internet2, Google, BGI, and More: News from October 2016

    Bio-IT World News Briefs | News, products, and partnerships from around the bio-IT community including news from Internet2, Google, BGI, and more.

    Oct 28, 2016

  • China National GeneBank Opening Hopes To Provide Resource For Global Health

    Bio-IT World Brief | The official opening of the China National GeneBank (CNGB) marks a new phase in Chinese-International genomics collaboration, providing scientists from across the world with access to one of the world's most comprehensive and sophisticated biorepositories with the goal of enabling breakthroughs in human health research, and contributing to global biodiversity conservation efforts.

    Oct 26, 2016

  • Solving The Lack Of Diversity In Genomic Research

    MIT Technology Review | An overwhelming majority of the data collected is from people of European ancestry. But researchers are trying to change that.

    Oct 25, 2016

  • Chinese Firm Admits Its Hacked Products Were Behind Friday's DDOS Attack

    Computerworld | A Chinese electronics component manufacturer says its products inadvertently played a role in a massive cyberattack that disrupted major internet sites in the U.S. on Friday.

    Oct 25, 2016

  • The Trials of Juno

    The Economist | Juno Therapeutics, a young biotech firm focused on cancer, promises both risk and reward with its attempt to master the T-cell. The firm is on the forefront of the most promising area of cancer treatments in decades.

    Oct 24, 2016

  • Welcome to DNA.Land: Trait Prediction, A Breast Cancer Research Collaboration, And a Facebook Group

    Bio-IT World “We’ve already entered the era of ubiquitous genetic information.” says Yaniv Erlich, so he and colleagues have built DNA.Land, to crowdsource these available genomes from individuals. A ticker on the DNA.Land website counts almost 32,000 genomes deposited into DNA.Land so far. The project recently launched a collaboration with the National Breast Cancer Coalition and has started offering trait predictions. 

    Oct 21, 2016

  • Illumina Builds Africa GWAS Chip With H3Africa Initiative

    Bio-IT World | Last week, Illumina announced that it is creating an array for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) by the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Initiative. The array—which isn’t available yet—will be include 2.5 million variations of specific interest to African populations.

    Oct 20, 2016

  • Perlara Signs Rare Disease Pact with Novartis

    Chemical & Engineering News | In a critical validation for a biotech firm espousing an unusual business model, Perlara has struck a deal to develop lysosomal storage disorder treatments with Novartis. The big pharma company will also make an undisclosed investment in the rare-disease-focused firm.

    Oct 20, 2016

  • News and Notes from ASHG 2016

    Bio-IT World News Brief | The American Society of Human Genetics annual meeting is currently underway in Vancouver, Canada. Here are some of the product news and company announcements released so far this week. Highlights include the Genome Aggregation Database, Illumina’s contribution to ClinVar, BabySeq news, and more.

    Oct 20, 2016

  • The Cure for Cancer Is Data—Mountains of Data

    WIRED | We must access genetic info from millions of cancer patients to make the connections necessary to battle the disease. It won't be easy, but Eric Schadt believes we can do it.

    Oct 19, 2016

  • CRISPR Therapeutics’ IPO Falls Short Of Target

    The Boston Globe | The gene-editing technology company with Cambridge operations sold 4 million share at $14 each. It had planned to sell 4.7 million shares at $15 to $17 apiece.

    Oct 19, 2016

  • DNAstack Launched for Google Cloud Genomics

    Bio-IT World | This week DNAstack, a Toronto-based genomic software company, launched its Google Cloud platform to accelerate genetic disease research and precision medicine built on GA4GH APIs.

    Oct 18, 2016

  • Veritas Genetics Lands $30M for $1,000 Genome Sequencing

    Xconomy | Veritas Genetics, which sells genome sequencing and genetic screening tests, has received a $30 million Series B round of funding to add more products, build out its digital tools for consumers, and ink partnerships with hospitals and researchers around the world.

    Oct 18, 2016

  • Microsoft computing method makes key aspect of genomic sequencing seven times faster

    Microsoft Blog | In a blog post this morning, Microsoft announced that it has come up with a way to "significantly reduce the time it takes to do the major computational aspects of sequencing a genome." Microsoft is running the BWA aligner and GATK on the Azure cloud, and says it is 7x faster than previously.

    Oct 18, 2016

  • If Billionaires Fund Your Research, Don't Take Public Money

    WIRED | Recent high-profile donations and initiatives highlight the private control of publicly funded biomedical research. The injection of private money into science is creating power alliances and disrupting the longstanding public research-funding model.

    Oct 17, 2016

  • Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb Could Face a Big Threat from Small Biotech Exelixis

    The Motley Fool | On Oct. 10, Exelixis announced results from its phase 2 CABOSUN study of Cabometyx in patients with previously untreated advanced kidney cancer. This clinical trial was structured as a head-to-head comparison between Cabometyx and Pfizer's Sutent, and Cabometyx emerged as the clear winner.

    Oct 17, 2016

  • Ewan Birney To Lead Global Alliance For Genomics and Health

    Bio-IT World | The Global Alliance for Genomics in Health (GA4GH) has selected Ewan Birney, Director of the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), to steward its member organizations in producing solutions for sharing genomic and clinical data. Birney took to his blog to address the new position.

    Oct 14, 2016

  • Among the Multitude: A Look At The Complexity Of Diversity In Genetics

    Bio-IT World | Genetics research is not as diverse as one would hope. Present discussions on this issue have led to the launching of multiple initiatives, including those from Illumina and 23andMe this week, whose goal is to develop the data pool in Africa.

    Oct 13, 2016

  • IBMs Cleversafe Storage Platform Is Becoming A Cloud Service

    Computerworld | The idea with IBM's new Cloud Object Storage service: If dispersing data among storage nodes can make it more secure and less prone to loss, spreading it across far-flung cloud data centers make it even more so.

    Oct 13, 2016

  • IBM Workers to Use Watson Supercomputer to Find Cancer Treatments

    Fortune | IBM announced that it will let its American workers use the Watson supercomputer technology in 2017 to find appropriate cancer treatments.

    Oct 12, 2016