For the second time, researchers have shown that dinosaur soft tissue and protein can survive for millions of years and yield informative peptide sequences.

The company, which until recently has focused almost exclusively "on cell-based work," expects that the delivery technology will facilitate its in vivo work and enable RNAi-based therapeutics.

The companies — Rosetta Genomics, MDRNA, and Tekmira Pharmaceuticals — have all seen their shares more than double since Dec. 31, significantly outperforming the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index.

The technology, called glucan-encapsulated siRNA particles, or GERPs, has been exclusively licensed by RXi Pharmaceuticals for use in developing RNAi-based therapeutics.

Under the deal, Isis has co-exclusively licensed to Alnylam the rights to use its ssRNAi technology in drug development. Isis could potentially receive $31 million in licensing fees under the agreement.

According to Alnylam, the patent application claims double-stranded RNAs with a number of key structural elements.

In Nature: GWAS for autism spectrum disorders and complex traits in Koreans, synthetic circuits, grants for women, and more.

According to CEO Frank Laukien mass-spectrometry sales rose in the double digits for the quarter "driven by the compelling capabilities of our high-performance products."

The plan, the company said in a motion filed last week, is not to keep its three remaining directors from abandoning ship during its Chapter 11 proceedings, but rather to reward them if they achieve specific performance goals "designed to maximize the value of [Vermillion's] estates for all constituents."

The goal of the Grant Opportunities program, part of the US economic stimulus package, is "to support high impact ideas that lend themselves to short-term funding, and may lay the foundation for new fields of investigation," NCI said in an announcement.

The CDC's head virologist discusses the current swine flu outbreak.

A blogger discusses when to apply for funding.

Marketplace discusses open-access publishing.

The American Chemical Society is laying off three percent of its workforce.

Waters

Included are a large-scale study of the human kinome, and a description of a database combining ETD spectra and protein sequence databases for peptide identification.

Sequenom's shares took a beating on Thursday after the firm disclosed that four employees are suspected of mishandling R&D data on its Down syndrome test. The firm said that it would delay the launch of the test until later in the year.

Sequenom's Q1 revenues fell due to softer than expected sales caused by budget cust in its customer base, company officials said.

Excluding the negative effect of currency translation, Bruker's first-quarter revenues were up 4 percent year over year.

Caliper's revenues increased 11 percent on an organic basis and the firm cut its net loss significantly in the first quarter.

The House and Senate passed their versions of the 2010 budget plan, enabling discussion to begin on specific funding levels.

A separate deal under which Prometheus agreed to acquire 2 million shares of Rosetta at $4 per share has also been completed.

USPTO Publishes One Patent, Seven Patent Applications Related to RNAi

Richard Chin, John Rossi, Alice Lin-Tsing, Kenneth Reed

Bioo Scientific, Sigma-Aldrich