• Roche Planning to Stay Out of Acquisitions

    Reuters | Roche is staying out of the pharma merger and acquisition fray, the CEO said. "We're sticking to our previous strategy... [of] small acquisitions and partnerships."

    Jul 21, 2014

  • Berry Genomics, Illumina Seek Chinese Regulatory Approval for NIPT

    Bio-IT World News Brief | Berry Genomics has chosen Illumina next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology as the platform on which Berry hopes to secure Chinese Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) regulatory approval for clinical applications. The combined "system" is in late stage CFDA testing, the Chinese company says.

    Jul 21, 2014

  • Universal Language: The Pistoia Alliance Takes on Indescribable Biology

    Bio-IT World | The Pistoia Alliance received a Best Practices Award at this year's Bio-IT World Conference & Expo for its work on HELM, a project that establishes a standard notation for complex macromolecules that are too large to sketch out atomically, but too heterogeneous to express as chains of RNA or amino acids. The project will aid interoperability across the industry, as pharma companies increasingly rely on strange, hybrid biochemistry in creating new therapeutics.

    Jul 18, 2014

  • Could CRISPR Transform Wild Ecosystems?

    Bio-IT World | In a paper published yesterday in the open access journal eLife, George Church and colleagues discuss the potential for "gene drives" that alter the genomes of whole wild populations using CRISPR gene editing technology, and weigh the risks and public interests surrounding such initiatives.

    Jul 18, 2014

  • Illumina Acquires Regulatory Strategy Consulting Firm

    Bio-IT World News Brief | Illumina today announced its acquisition of Myraqa, a consulting firm specializing in the regulatory strategy surrounding in vitro diagnostics, particularly companion diagnostics.

    Jul 16, 2014

  • Novartis Signs On to License Google's Glucose-Monitoring Contact Lenses

    New York Times | Google and Novartis have announced a partnership for Novartis to license Google's smart contact lens that could measure a wearer's blood sugar levels.

    Jul 16, 2014

  • IBM Gains Ground with SoftLayer Cloud

    Computerworld | IBM is gaining cloud ground with its SoftLayer product, Big Blue says, reporting 6,000 new customers in the last year and $1.2 billion invested in data centers.

    Jul 15, 2014

  • Transcriptic Launches Molecular, Cell Biology On-Demand Lab

    Bio-IT World News Brief | Transcriptic today launched the Transcriptic Platform, their own cloud-based programmable system for defining and executing experimental protocols. The company says the platform can create a 10-fold productivity advantage for researchers working on molecular and cell biology.

    Jul 15, 2014

  • BGI Scientists Expand Reference Genes for Human Microbiome

    Bio-IT World | The Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), China's gene sequencing powerhouse, has released a set of reference genes for the human gut microbiome, in a catalogue that is substantially larger and covers a greater diversity of human populations than any previous resources.

    Jul 14, 2014

  • Illumina Chosen as Service Provider for Genomics England Project

    Technology Review | Illumina has been chosen as the "preferred partner" for the UK's 100,000 genomes project. Genomics England chose Illumina to do the sequencing, and said that fewer than five other companies bid for the job.

    Jul 13, 2014