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{bio,medical} informatics


Tuesday, December 30, 2003

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find related articles. powered by google. The Times of India Indians discover three SARS virus genes

"Indian scientists missed the race to sequence the virus that causes SARS but they have scored a major victory by discovering three new genes of the virus - a step that should help speed up development of drugs or vaccine against the deadly disease that is feared to be reappearing."

"Indian scientists could not play a role in sequencing the SARS genome because they did not have access to the virus. However, availability of complete DNA sequence of SARS virus in the public domain provided them the opportunity for identification of protein coding genes using a novel gene prediction method called 'Gene Decipher' developed at IGIB."

redux [05.14.03]
find related articles. powered by google. Nature: Science Update SARS' Achilles' heel revealed

"Researchers have made a three-dimensional image of a crucial part of the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The model suggests that a drug being tested as a cold remedy is a good starting point in treating the killer disease."

""It's the Achilles' heel of the virus," says biochemist Rolf Hilgenfeld of the University of Luebeck in Germany, who led the team behind the model. "We're convinced that hitting this target will be enough to stop infection.""

redux [05.07.03]
find related articles. powered by google. BBC Fight over Sars virus genes

"Scientists and commercial firms are scrambling to patent the genetic code of the virus thought to be responsible for Sars.

The group which produced the first entire genetic sequence of the coronavirus confirmed this week that it is seeking a patent to ensure that everyone has free access to the code.

It fears that a commercial patent could slow down research into vaccines and treatments."

redux [09.28.02]
find related articles. powered by google. SFGate Scholars to debate the wisdom of continuing to patent genes

"The Bay Area biotech firm that started the heretical campaign to ban gene patents hopes to stir more debate on the topic by sponsoring a scholarly smackdown in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

Santa Clara's Affymetrix broke ranks with the biotech industry in March by arguing that the United States should quit issuing gene patents because genes were invented by nature, not science."

redux [07.23.02]
find related articles. powered by google. New Scientist Gene patents "inhibit innovation"

"Patents on DNA sequences "inhibit innovation and development" and should be the exception rather than the norm, says a panel of leading UK bioethicists. In the past, biotech companies have said that without such patent protection they would not have the economic incentive to invest in expensive research towards new drugs.

A discussion paper, produced by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (NCB), says that too many patents are of doubtful validity because they are being issued for genetic discoveries that are not adequately inventive. It recommends a number of significant changes to the way patents in the field are granted in the future and to limit possible adverse effects of those already issued."

redux [03.18.02]
find related articles. powered by google. digitalMASS Compaq chief's comment stuns biotech crowd

"It's one of the toughest questions in biotechnology: Should businesses obtain patents on genetic information about plants, animals or humans? Michael Capellas, CEO of Compaq Computer Corp., surprised an audience of biotechnology specialists yesterday when he suggested that the answer should be "no.""

"In a comment that stunned the audience into several seconds of silence, Capellas responded to a question on the issue by flatly saying that companies shouldn't be able to patent genes. But he quickly backed away from the comment, pleading ignorance of all the ramifications of the issue. "If you're asking me what should be patentable," Capellas said, "I don't know.""

redux [02.07.02]
find related articles. powered by google. NewScientist Scientists hindered by gene patent

"Patents may make some genetic tests so expensive that ordinary labs cannot afford to offer them, says a team of researchers who interviewed staff at 119 US facilities.

Patents are meant to provide an incentive for companies to put their discoveries into the public domain. But some researchers wonder if prohibitive costs could in fact have the opposite effect, by keeping standard genetic tests out of the reach of all but a few laboratories. That would have far-reaching consequences not only for health care, but for clinical research and quality control, the researchers say."

redux [08.20.01]
find related articles. powered by google. SiliconValley.Com As disease-causing genes are discovered, the rush to the patent office grows

""Like the Terrys, a rising number of patients, doctors and ethicists are questioning how the patent system handles genetic claims. Many say it awards too many patents, overly rewards their holders, and gives too little back to patients. Yet many industry voices complain the process is moving too slowly to keep up with galloping research and to yield medical care awaited by suffering patients."

"The gold rush days are about to begin,'' says Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania. "There are so many targets that look so lucrative that they're falling all over one another to pursue opportunity after opportunity.""

redux [02.27.01]
find related articles. powered by google. The Economist Science and profit

"ONCE upon a time, pure and applied science were the same. Sir Humphry Davy discovered seven chemical elements, and invented the miner's safety lamp. Louis Pasteur investigated the properties of molecules, and worked out how to stop milk spoiling. Everybody thought that was admirable. Somehow, things have changed. Today the feeling is widespread that science and commerce should not - must not - mix. There is a queasy suspicion that the process of discovery is in some way corrupted if it is driven by profit."

"Far from compromising science, profit in both these cases - the development of new medicines and the elucidation of the genome - has animated it, and directed it towards meeting pressing human needs. It is a happy marriage. Davy and Pasteur would surely have approved."

redux [08.26.00]
find related articles. powered by google. MIT Technology Review The Case for Gene Patents

"Nowhere are patents more central to the creative process than in genetic drug development, where human genes and their expressed proteins themselves are developed as therapies. The biotechnology industry in the United States has brought a handful of these crucial new products (recombinant human insulin, to name one of the most familiar) to market and is on the threshold of a bonanza of genetic drugs and vastly greater relief for ill and aging populations around the world.

Patent protection is the sine qua non of that bonanza."

redux [04.26.00]
find related articles. powered by google. Signals Homestead 2000: The Genome

""The analogy that I would use is that of a minefield," said Bob Levy, senior VP of science and technology for American Home Products. "We are spending an incredible amount of time now, when we find exciting targets and begin to validate them, in trying to define who has rights to what. And we're finding, in almost every product that we look at, that someone has patented the protein, the gene, a fragment, a diagnostic test." Levy noted that untangling patent rights, and determining which patents are dominant, are increasingly time-consuming and expensive tasks. And patent-holders must be paid. "The royalties that will be involved soon in some of the products that we are bringing to market, they're already up into the ten, fourteen, fifteen percent [range]," said Levy. "And that may increase with time.""



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Bioinformatics will be at the core of biology in the 21st century. In fields ranging from structural biology to genomics to biomedical imaging, ready access to data and analytical tools are fundamentally changing the way investigators in the life sciences conduct research and approach problems. Complex, computationally intensive biological problems are now being addressed and promise to significantly advance our understanding of biology and medicine. No biological discipline will be unaffected by these technological breakthroughs.

BIOINFORMATICS IN THE 21st CENTURY

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