Proteomics firm Nautilus Biotechnology has appointed Karen Akinsanya to its board of directors. Akinsanya is currently president of R&D for therapeutics at Schrödinger. Prior to joining Schrödinger, she held positions of increasing responsibility over more than a decade at Merck Research Laboratories, including as associate director of clinical pharmacology; executive director and therapeutic area lead in discovery preclinical and early development; and associate VP of business development and licensing. She holds a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Queen Mary University of London and a PhD in endocrine physiology from the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at Imperial College London.

Delfi Diagnostics has appointed Liz Homans to its board of directors. Homans is currently CEO of Lyell Immunopharma, which she joined when it was founded in 2018. She later served as the company's president prior to becoming CEO in 2020. Before that she held multiple senior leadership positions at Genentech from 2009 to 2018, including VP of US sales. Homans received an MBA from Columbia University and a BA in German and economics from Bates University.

Researchers behind the BabySeq universal screening program for newborns have won a four-year, $5.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study a larger, more diverse cohort.

The company aims to release an initial tissue-based prognostic this year, with a less-invasive sponge-sampling version for screening high-risk individuals to follow in 2023.

BC Platforms sees an opportunity to address the shortage of Asian haplotypes for research and to accelerate its Asia-Pacific business growth.

In a series of studies, investigators outlined methods used to produce a telomere-to-telomere version of the human genome, while touching on applications of the assembly.

Arthur Riggs, a developer of recombinant DNA technology, has died at 82, the Washington Post reports.

A US Food and Drug Administration panel finds there is not enough evidence supporting the efficacy of a new ALS treatment, the New York Times reports.

Retraction Watch reports that PLOS One has retracted five papers by CUNY's Hoau-Yan Wang and colleagues.

In Nature this week: algorithm to compress third-generation sequencing data, approach to identify disease-causing gene variants in less than eight hours, and more.

The deal gives Prime Medicine the exclusive option to license the RetroT technology for use alongside its core prime editing approach for therapeutics.

Arima Genomics has appointed Chris Roberts as senior VP of corporate strategy. Roberts comes to Arima from Veracyte, where he led the commercial marketing, product strategy, strategic reimbursement, and field support organizations. He has also held senior leadership roles with HTG Molecular Diagnostics, Caris Life Sciences, and Ventana Medical Systems. Roberts holds an MBA from Duke University.

The new human genome assembly could lead to better variant calling and inform cell biology studies, a consortium of researchers said at the ABRF annual meeting.

NRichDx has launched the Revolution Sample Prep Service for cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) extraction from researcher-provided plasma or urine samples. The company said the service is for researchers who want to maximize the recovery and yield of cfDNA and ctDNA from plasma or urine samples of 1 ml to 20 ml, but may not yet need to purchase the firm's Revolution Sample Prep System.

Researchers using the service first complete a short intake form on the NRichDx website, then send their samples to the company for cfDNA extraction by technicians using the Revolution Sample Prep System. The cfDNA is eluted in the requested volume and returned by express shipment to the researcher. The company said the turnaround time is typically within a week.

Per-sample pricing for plasma or urine samples of less than or equal to 10 ml is $99, while samples that are more than 10 ml are charged $119. In addition to the service, NRichDx said it will continue to sell the Revolution Sample Prep System and kits and semi-automated workflow powered by Eppendorf.

By the end of the year, SomaLogic plans to add 10 more SomaScan diagnostic assays, CEO Roy Smythe told investors, bringing the total to around 30 assays.

The molecular diagnostic firm has also begun international commercialization of its products in Canada and Singapore. 

As it eyes new targets, the firm is poised to launch its personalized solid tumor MRD assay this year and is progressing toward approval for a liver cancer early detection IVD.

Startup Zephyr AI seeks to aggregate, curate, and apply artificial intelligence to genomic and other datasets to inform drug discovery and diabetes and cancer care.

While the relative risk associated with a prostate cancer PRS decreased with age, case-control data suggested absolute risk remained fairly stable over time.

The Cleveland Clinic is launching its first medical center in the UK, with a reported price tag of £1 billion ($1.3 billion), the Financial Times reports.

The Associated Press reports that scientists are testing wildlife to monitor SARS-CoV-2 prevalence and spread.

The New York Times reports on a recently published JAMA study that concludes there is no real cardiac benefit of alcohol consumption, even moderate intake.

FASEB has launched an initiative called DataWorks, while an ABRF working group is developing templates for core labs to use.

In Cell this week: Meta-transcriptomics to ID viruses in mammals; a CRISPR method called Perturb-map; tumor-associated macrophages.

The German rare disease company said its core business increased 34 percent in the fourth quarter, driven by both diagnostics and pharma revenues.