SEATTLE – As it enters its third year, the Human Cell Atlas project has mapped 100 million of 100 billion cells, and by comparing gene expression profiles of normal and aberrant cells and building networks of cellular interactions, is leading to breakthroughs in understanding of disease at a molecular level.
SEATTLE – Applying single cell transcriptomics to brain tissue from living donors is laying bare the vast differences between the human brain and the mouse brain, calling into question the use of animal models in psychiatric drug discovery.
SEATTLE – Tracing the family tree of COVID-19 through its evolving DNA sequence makes it possible to disprove many false claims circulating on social media about the novel coronavirus, and, in particular, that it was generated in a covert biological weapons program. “From everything I’ve looked at, there is zero evidence for genetic engineering; it looks like normal evolution,” said Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who has been using genomes sequences taken from patient samples to track the spread of the virus since Jan. 11.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Diabetes seems likely to be the first area to really show concrete products and results for the ambitious Verily Life Sciences, which is the med-tech business of Mountain View, Calif.-based Google parent Alphabet Inc. However, its two major diabetes partners both have been rethinking the relationship.
DUBLIN – “Welcome to the conversation,” Abbvie Inc.’s head of genomic research, Howard Jacob, an early pioneer of genomics-driven medicine, told delegates during a keynote address at the Genomics Summit 2020 event Jan. 23. Ireland is very much a latecomer to that conversation and it has yet, as a country, to figure out what the shape of its contribution to the genomic era of medicine is going to be.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Just as it does with treatments, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) offers detailed guidelines on genomic testing by cancer type. These are key in determining what physicians can prescribe routinely and what insurers will cover. But those guidelines aren’t followed regularly outside a major research hospital setting, thereby obviating access to tumor genetic information that could help to better guide treatment. Even if current guidelines are followed, physicians and patients can get information back from the tests that neither party is prepared to process.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Peter Thiel is not a fan of incremental science. The high-profile venture capital investor, who invests across technology and the life sciences via various vehicles, including the Founders Fund, suggested that as academic and government bureaucracies have scaled up and rigidified over the last 50 or 60 years, that has eroded the ability of researchers to pursue innovative science.
SAN FRANCISCO – There's no time like now to think about the potential political changes, opportunities and challenges down the road for industry, Hogan Lovells partner Ivan Zapien told luncheon attendees during this year's Biotech Showcase.
SAN DIEGO – Allele-specific KRAS inhibitors are “the most exciting change coming down the pike for treating KRAS-mutant tumors in the near future,” Ferdinandos Skoulidis said at the sixth joint conference by the American Association for Cancer Research and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer meeting.
SAN FRANCISCO – Atop the stage where, just a year ago, he'd detailed the then-new $74 billion acquisition of Celgene Corp, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. CEO Giovanni Caforio told attendees of this year's J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference he intends to plunge ahead with "the agility and speed of a biotech company."