Tag: genomics
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Diagnostics Company Lands $20 Million Investment Round
NanoString Technologies Inc., a Seattle-based privately held developer of medical science diagnostic tools, says it has closed a $20 million equity deal to finance the company’s continued growth. The series D round — the company’s fourth funding cycle after start-up — includes the first investment by GE’s healthymagination Fund. NanoString Technologies makes molecular diagnostic equipment…
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Genomic Sequencing Precisely Targets Food Pathogens
A collaboration of academic, industry, and government researchers have harnessed genomic sequencing to more precisely identify food pathogens. Their findings appeared online earlier this month in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology (paid subscription required). To identify the source of outbreaks of food-borne illnesses, such as salmonella, public health authorities have up to now analyzed…
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Students Engineer Bread Yeast to Yield More Nutrients
Undergraduate students at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have genetically engineered yeast cells used in making bread to produce more beta carotene. The project that the students call VitaYeast is the university’s entry in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) contest held 5-7 November at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Yeast helps make bread rise, but…
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Dana-Farber, Brigham and Women’s Establish Genomic Database
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital — both in Boston — have launched a new research project to scan tumor tissue from adult cancer patients for hundreds of gene mutations linked to cancer. The program, called Profile, aims to speed the development of cancer treatments that target the genetic weaknesses in each patient’s…
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Genetics Identified for Bed Bug Insecticide Resistance
Researchers at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg have discovered the genetic mechanisms that bolster bed bugs’ recent resistance to current insecticides. The entomologists and other life scientists published their findings in the 19 October issue of the online journal PLoS One. Bed bugs in the past few years have developed a resistance to pyrethroids, a class…
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Diagnostics Start-Up Closes $33.5M Early-Stage Financing
Foundation Medicine Inc., a developer of cancer genome diagnostics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has expanded its early stage financing to $33.5 million, adding new venture investors. The additional financing is expected to help the company continue its research work on cancer diagnostic tests. The new funding from Google Ventures and venture capital company Kleiner Perkins Caufield…
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Harvard Program to Apply Systems Approach to Drug Discovery
Harvard Medical School is launching an Initiative in Systems Pharmacology, to develop what it calls a comprehensive strategy to transform drug discovery. The program aims to reverse the slowdown in the development of new therapies and involve a range of disciplines and methods outside the usual collection of life scientists and clinicians. Marc Kirschner, who…
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Complete Genomes Sequenced of Embryonic Stem Cell Lines
Researchers from industry, research institutes, and universities in the U.S. and Korea have conducted a complete genomic sequence analysis of five human embryonic stem cell lines. Their findings appear online in the journal Stem Cell Research (paid subscription required). The authors describe a systematic application of current molecular technologies to provide a detailed understanding of…
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Google to Partner with, Finance DNA Sequencing Data Company
DNAnexus Inc., a DNA data management and analysis company in Mountain View, California, says it will collaborate with Google Inc. to provide access to its archive of publicly available DNA data. Also today, DNAnexus announced it has secured $15 million in second-round equity funding from a syndicate led by Google Ventures and life sciences venture…
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Roche to License University DNA Sequencing Technology
The Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche has agreed to license DNA sequencing technology developed at Arizona State and Columbia universities to help build a new type of DNA sequencing system. One goal of the system will be to quickly decode a person’s complete genome for less than $1,000. The licensed technologies are based on research conducted…