George Church says he has high hopes for the promise of personal genomics.

Good genes and a healthy heart? Jose Ordovas on what nutrigenomics can tell us.

Dana-Farber announces a campaign to raise $1 billion that would, among other things, create a new cancer-patient care center in Boston.

NEWSBRIEF

BIOINFORMATICS

BD’s Q1 Revenues Rise 8 Percent Led by Biosciences Unit   Becton Dickinson last week said fiscal first-quarter 2007 revenues increased 8 percent as R&D spending surged 185 percent and profit dropped 35 percent.

NEWSBRIEF

The acquisition provides MDS Sciex with a well-established line of products for the high-end cell analysis market and a sizeable sales force that it hopes will boost sales of its CellKey secondary screening tool. It also places MDS Sciex in direct competition with some industry heavyweights including GE Healthcare, BD Biosciences, Fisher unit Cellomics, and PerkinElmer’s Evotec Technologies business.

White’s comments come three months after former President Cathy Burzik left the company and will give Applera’s board of directors plenty of time to assess in-house candidates. The obvious candidates for the post are ABI’s four division presidents: Mark Stevenson, Laura Lauman, Leonard Klevan, and Michael Schneider, all of whom joined White during the conference call to answer questions from analysts.

RNAi

Clinical Data announced this week the launch of PGxPredict:Rituximab, a pharmacogenetic test that predicts follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients’ likelihood of responding to rituximab monotherapy.   This test allow

The $10.75 million payment from Stratagene is far less than the roughly $21 million, including attorneys’ fees and costs, awarded to Third Wave by the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, but it enables both firms to avoid further litigation costs.

PerkinElmer began 2007 with the acquisitions of Euroscreen Products and Evotec Technologies, adding complementary technologies to its CellLux and LumiLux instruments for cell-population experiments. The firm is hoping that these acquisitions will help spark growth in sales to its biopharma customers.

NEWSBRIEF

MICROARRAYS

It doesn't matter how hard you try; you won't be able to ignore translational medicine. How basic scientists and clinicians are spanning the gap, and what it means for you.

Celera identified a polymorphism associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction and coronary heart disease. The company believes the allele could help pharma companies expand the statin market by identifying patients who are carriers of the genetic polymorphism but who are not on statins.

The study found that “silent” SNPs in the protein product of the MDR1 gene can potentially say a lot about a patient’s resistance to anti-cancer agents.

Shares of Molecular Devices closed up nearly 53 percent for the week ended Tuesday, following Monday’s announcement that MDS would acquire the firm for $35.50 per share (

Tim Germann has been named vice president of sales of Metabolon, the firm announced this week.

The founders of the iGEM competition are building a new breed of synthetic biologists — and stoking interest in the rest of the community. Plus, a roundup of advances in synthetic bio from the past year.

Thanks to new technology and new partnerships, the epigenomics field has gone from the redheaded stepchild to the center of attention.

NEWS SPOTLIGHT

CASE STUDY

The company is sticking to its goal of reaching profitability by 2008, but is keeping a close watch on “uncertainties” that may impact its more immediate financial performance.