A team uses graphene for nanopore sequencing.

Kaiser Permanente and Elizabeth Blackburn are studying patients' genes and telomeres.

The US House of Representatives passed a science bill.

Cora Marret will be the acting director of the National Science Foundation.

In PLoS this week: immunohistochemical markers for breast cancer outcome, a "quick guide to large-scale genomic data mining," co-regulation networks from E. coli to humans, and more.

GenomeWeb Daily News will publish only one bulletin today due to the Memorial Day holiday in the US. We will resume publishing twice-daily bulletins tomorrow, June 1.

The $1.5 million grant will support a pilot project to implement clinical and lab practices for molecular genetic tests in a healthcare delivery system.

Two Illinois bills that passed the state House of Representatives this past week would set aside $10 million in tax credits to assist state-based angel investors in startup companies that commercialize new technologies.

A genome-wide association study involving thousands in southern China has identified potential risk alleles in both human leukocyte antigen genes and non-HLA genes.

The firms will jointly promote OriGene's multiplex assays with Hitachi's MasterPlex software suite.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce asked questions of Craig Venter, Anthony Fauci, and others as it sought explanations of the technology and discussed ethical implications and oversight of the burgeoning field.

The company had initially said it expected a price range of between $8 and $10, but the IPO will now go off at $6 per share.

Based on their analyses of more than 100 potential disease alleles in zebrafish embryos and cell lines, a Duke University-led research team reported this week that both rare and common genetic variants appear to contribute to a condition called Bardet-Biedl syndrome.

AB Sciex's new TripleTOF 5600 and Waters' new Xevo G2 QTof will enable researchers to run qualitative and quantitative workflows simultaneously, the companies said, allowing for full scans of complex samples that can then be interrogated in a more targeted fashion.

"It's taking two workflows and allowing you to do it on one workflow, even in some senses in an a priori manner," a company official said, adding the platform is "the most important launch" in the 26 years he's been with the firm.

One of roughly 20,000 blood-feeding insects and ticks, the common bed bug — Cimex lectalarius — has developed a system of salivary proteins to battle its hosts’ hemostasis response, a look at which provides insight into the evolution of the blood-feeding mechanism.

The hospital believes it is the first to receive approval from the state to use the instrument for diagnosing gene mutations.

The Q1 revenues came from the forgiveness of $3 million in principal on a $10 million secured line of credit provided to the company as part of an agreement with Quest Diagnostics.

The company will be working to improve methods of biomolecule extraction to allow researchers to better use archival formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples in studies of disease progression and response to therapy.

ISB researchers will use the company's synthetic peptides and HeavyPeptide AQUA standards in their efforts to develop selected-reaction monitoring and multiple-reaction monitoring mass spectrometry assays for each of the roughly 25,000 human proteins.

The money will be used to further develop and commercialize the company's exosome-based diagnostics for cancer.

ASMS Focus: New Products from Thermo Fisher, Bruker, Waters, Shimadzu, Agilent, and Bio-Rad

Proteomics research papers of note, May 2010

Sarah Trimpin

In Brief This Week is a Friday column containing news items that our readers may have missed during the week.