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.

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.

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.

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.

Bio-IT World | The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation goes into effect May 25, 2018. The regulation is significantly more expansive than the privacy directive it replaces and carries hefty financial penalties for non-compliance. But the biggest cause for concern may be its impact for non-European companies, who have no idea that the regulations apply to them.

Bio-IT World | A paper published yesterday in Cell sheds more light on two mechanisms of DNA folding within the nucleus, and how the folding impacts genome function.

Bio-IT World Brief | Illumina announced the availability of an innovative whole genome sequencing library prep product, Nextera DNA Flex, which eliminates the need for sample preparation for whole blood and saliva, and removes tedious steps in the library prep workflow, such as mechanical fragmentation of DNA, quantification, and normalization.