Bio-IT World News Brief | Golden Helix has announced a cancer addition to their clinical analytics product, VSClinical. This new capability will guide clinicians through the clinical assessment of somatic variants, adding workflows modeled off the guidelines issued by the Association of Molecular Pathologists.

Bio-IT World | Pharmaceutical companies are looking for ways to save time and money in the drug discovery process. If there was a way to determine a therapy's impact in the pre-clinical process, researchers would have a better understanding of where to focus their efforts. This is where organoids come in.

Bio-IT World Contributed Commentary | Ever since blockchain burst onto the scene a decade ago, people have continually found new—and sometimes odd—applications for the technology. Yet when it comes to the life sciences, a lack of practical applications has resulted in blockchain being considered a "hammer in search of a nail."

NPR.org | There are new concerns about the world's first genetically modified babies. It appears that the genetic variation a Chinese scientist was trying to recreate when he edited twin girls' DNA may be more harmful than helpful to health overall, according to a study published Monday.

Bio-IT World | PerkinElmer has signed on to Accenture's open partner ecosystem and will integrate its big data technology and content into the cloud-based platform's wider efforts in drug discovery and research.

STAT | Could a blood test detect cancer in healthy people? Grail, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based company, has raised $1.6 billion in venture capital to prove the answer is yes.