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In Silico: Jan 1, 2002

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www.GenomeWeb.COM Daily

 

Desperately Seeking Cash

DoubleTwist and Hitachi have agreed to extend for an additional year a distribution deal in the Asia-Pacific region as the bioinformatics company attempts to preserve cash and rein in its burn rate. The deal gave DoubleTwist an upfront payment, said CEO John Couch.

Find “DoubleTwist Extends Hitachi Deal, Looks for Footing in Changed Environment” by searching: Hitachi

 

Bad News, Good News

Agilent Technologies said orders and revenues were slashed by roughly half last year, and that it would cut 4,000 jobs as it struggled to regain profitability. None of the jobs cut would be in life sciences business, where Agilent may be hiring more staff to fill a growing demand.

Find “Agilent Product Orders, Revenue Nosedive in Q4; Firm to Cut 4,000 Jobs” by searching: Agilent

 

Got Data?

In a significant step into bioinformatics and database development and curation, scientific publisher John Wiley & Sons announced an agreement with Celera Genomics to integrate Celera’s bioinformatics and genomics data with journal article abstracts and full-text articles. Subscribers will have direct Internet access to crosslinked information from Wiley’s journals and Celera’s databases.

Find “Celera Deal Signals First Step by Scientific Publisher to Enter Database Realm” by searching: Wiley

 

www.BIOarraynews.COM WEEKLY

 

New Math

Affymetrix and a few of its friends at Johns Hopkins have reinvented the abacus. Their ABACUS, or Adaptive Background Genotype Calling Scheme, is an automated algorithm that it claims allows researchers reliably to detect thousands of rare and common genetic variations at once.

Find “Affymetrix Plans to Commercialize Genetic Variation Detection System” by searching: Affymetrix

 

 

www.BIOINFORM.COM WEEKLY

 

Decoding Non-coding

A new gene prediction program from Michael Zhang and his colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor Lab could be an effective tool as biologists shift their focus from coding regions of the genome to regulatory regions. The program, called FirstEF, is able to detect non-coding first exons — a class of gene segments that has been very difficult to detect by conventional methods that rely on protein coding patterns.

Find “New Program from CSHL Detects Non-Coding Regions, Adds New Guess to Human Gene Count” by searching: CSHL

 

 

www.PROTEOMONITOR.COM WEEKLY

 

Identity Crisis

After shifting away from its EG&G identity, the renamed PerkinElmer moved into life sciences — and now wants to extend its reach into proteomics. Its MALDI-TOF partnership with MDS Sciex and acquisition of Packard Biosciences could help, but the company’s push into proteomics may not be easy given the strong and diverse product lines of industry stalwarts.

Find “PerkinElmer Steps Up to Proteomics Plate: Will Imaging Analysis Be Enough?” by searching: PerkinElmer

 

The Scan

Latent HIV Found in White Blood Cells of Individuals on Long-Term Treatments

Researchers in Nature Microbiology find HIV genetic material in monocyte white blood cells and in macrophages that differentiated from them in individuals on HIV-suppressive treatment.

Seagull Microbiome Altered by Microplastic Exposure

The overall diversity and the composition at gut microbiome sites appear to coincide with microplastic exposure and ingestion in two wild bird species, according to a new Nature Ecology and Evolution study.

Study Traces Bladder Cancer Risk Contributors in Organ Transplant Recipients

In eLife, genome and transcriptome sequencing reveal mutation signatures, recurrent somatic mutations, and risky virus sequences in bladder cancers occurring in transplant recipients.

Genes Linked to White-Tailed Jackrabbits' Winter Coat Color Change

Climate change, the researchers noted in Science, may lead to camouflage mismatch and increase predation of white-tailed jackrabbits.