Smiths Detection to Offer LATE PCR 'Toolkit' Based on Brandeis, UMDNJ Technologies

July 01, 2009

By Ben Butkus

The UK-based company will offer the toolkit through a single license that combines IP it licensed from Brandeis University and PHRI Properties, the tech-transfer arm of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

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Papers of Note

Chromosome-Scale Selective Sweeps and Genomic Diversity in C. elegans
Andersen, Gerke et al., Nature Genetics
Researchers at Princeton University and elsewhere discuss the effects of chromosome-scale selective sweeps on genomic diversity in Caenorhabditis elegans. Taking a high-throughput selective sequencing approach on a collection of 200 wild C. elegans strains, the team found that the nematode's "genome variation is dominated by a set of commonly shared haplotypes on four of its six chromosomes, each spanning many megabases." Further, the team reports on its population genetic modeling experiments, which showed that "this pattern was generated by chromosome-scale selective sweeps that have reduced variation worldwide; at least one of these sweeps probably occurred in the last few hundred years," it writes.

Dissecting the Regulatory Architecture of Gene Expression Quantitative Trait Loci
Gaffney, Veyrieras et al., Genome Biology
A team led by investigators at the University of Chicago this week report their use of a "Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate the enrichment of eQTLs [expression quantitative trait loci] in a wide variety of regulatory annotations" derived from 1,000 Genomes Project data. "We find that [approximately] 40 percent of eQTLs occur in open chromatin, and that they are particularly enriched in transcription factor binding sites, suggesting that many directly impact protein-DNA interactions," the authors write.
People on the Move

Life Technologies this week named Alan Sachs as head of global research and development and Ronnie Andrews as president of medical sciences.

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Stephen O'Brien has left the National Cancer Institute's Laboratory of Genomic Diversity after 25 years to help launch a genome bioinformatics program at St. Petersburg University in Russia. O'Brien received a $5 million grant from the Russian Ministry of Education and Science last year under a program that aims to lure big-name researchers to Russia. Over the coming three years, O'Brien will spend at least four months per year in Russia working at the center, which is scheduled to open in May.

Saladax Biomedical said today that President and CEO Edward Erickson has resigned due to personal and family reasons, and that he will be replaced by Kevin Harter on an interim basis. Erickson will remain a member of the company's board of directors. Harter is a co-founder and senior VP of the Life Sciences Greenhouse, and he has served as executive chairman at Saladax.
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Members of the International Stroke Genetics Consortium and the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 did a GWAS involving thousands of individuals of European descent with or without a history of stroke and found a new genetic variant that contributes to a form of stroke called large vessel ischemic stroke. The variant was found in in the histone deacetylase 9 coding gene HDAC9 on chromosome 7.
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Canada launched a new program that will pump C$67.5 million (US$67.3 million) into projects that will use genomics-based research to advance personalized healthcare. The 2012 Large-Scale Applied Research Project Competition in Genomics and Personalized Health is funded with C$40 million from Genome Canada, C$22.5 million from the Canadian Institute of Health Research, and C$5 million from the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium.
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Smiths Detection to Offer LATE PCR 'Toolkit' Based on Brandeis, UMDNJ Technologies

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