Sequencing and Analysis of the Hydra Genome
Chapman, Kirkness et al., Nature
An international research collaboration reports their sequencing and analysis of the Hydra magnipapillata genome, and compare it to the genomes of several other organisms. "The Hydra genome has been shaped by bursts of transposable element expansion, horizontal gene transfer, trans-splicing, and simplification of gene structure and gene content that parallel simplification of the Hydra life cycle," the authors write. They team suggests that comparisons of the Hydra genome to the reported sequences of other animals have helped them to elucidate the evolution of several of the organism's characteristics.
Quest’s Diagnostic Labs of Oklahoma to Spend $16M on Significant Expansion
October 29, 2009
Quest Diagnostics subsidiary Diagnostic Laboratories of Oklahoma next spring will spend $16 million to build a new, significantly larger Oklahoma City base as a result of “unexpected growth,” according to a local news report.
The company’s current 46,000-square-foot home is split between two office buildings set across the street from each other with the lab space on one side and the administrative offices on the other.
The new facility, which is slated to be completed in 2011, will be 70,000 square feet and will be located behind a medical practice called the McBride Clinic and next to the “future” Thunder practice facility, according to the story.
The new building will house DLO’s cytology programs, which are currently housed away from the lab.
"The Diagnostic Laboratories of Oklahoma has done tremendously well,” CEO Surya Mohapatra said, while DLO CEO Bill Mosteller said “[o]ur growth has been unexpected” and “we’ve been wildly successful.”
Other changes have been afoot at Quest. As I reported earlier this week, the company said it plans to lay off around 60 staffers in one of its Connecticut testing facilities, or 3 percent of its entire New England staff, as part of efforts to make the lab “more efficient.”
