Tuesday, December 30, 2003

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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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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.""

Monday, December 29, 2003

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BBC Free software to aid poor doctors

"Free software developed to care for US Vietnam War vets could help provide better healthcare in poor countries.

A group of open source evangelists are looking to take the program called Vista beyond the borders of the US."

Friday, December 26, 2003

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Bio-IT World The '04 Forecast for Bio-IT

"Earlier this year, Bio-IT World Senior Informatics Editor Malorye Branca interviewed 50 leaders in the bio-IT industry for their perspective on the completion of the human genome project, and their predictions/resolutions for the New Year and beyond.

As 2003 draws to a close, we present a three-part series of the highlights of that exclusive online report -- "50/50: Reflections on the Double Helix" -- with particular emphasis on the experts' predictions of the most important industry and technology trends for the year(s) ahead."

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

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Wired News Mayo Amasses Mounds of Data

"The Mayo Clinic and IBM Life Sciences are close to activating an advanced database that doctors believe will help improve the accuracy and speed of diagnoses.

The database, called the Mayo Clinic Life Sciences System, will be used for research beginning in January by a limited number of doctors. It groups 4.4 million patients according to factors they have in common and includes both historical data and comprehensive information on Mayo Clinic patients dating back to 1997."

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

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News.Com IBM thinks Fast for bioscience searches

"Oslo-based Fast Search & Transfer said on Monday that the two companies will look to integrate Fast's data search technology with Big Blue's products for bioscience customers in Europe and North America. The combined technology aims to help life sciences professionals track down information more quickly by providing a single point of access to massive amounts of data in internal systems and in external databases, in a disparate range of storage formats."

"We expect this partnership to help improve the discovery process for those in the life sciences sector who require real-time access to scientific information that is highly relevant to their research needs," Martin Stoddart, a senior marketing manager in IBM's Life Science Discovery Solutions unit, said in a statement."

Monday, December 22, 2003

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Mass High Tech Biomed Rounds: Small companies step up to the plate in large trials

"A half-dozen years ago it appeared that bioinformatics companies would take care of the data explosion. You know, big computers crunching large numbers in the hope that quick -- or quicker -- answers would be returned following an outsourcing of expensive software solutions.

But come to find out bioinformatics has not emerged as a dynamic space. The reason is that a fledging flock of geeks can never know enough about a client's science to make their software services worthwhile."

Friday, December 19, 2003

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BioMedNet Scientists urged to take responsibility for bioterrorism
[requires 'free' registration]

"Although many scientific journals are now aware of their responsibility regarding publication of such research, what about when they receive manuscripts on work that is not intentionally related to dangerous pathogens, but which could nevertheless be misused?"

"Even though publishers are now becoming more aware of their responsibilities, the Internet presents a threat that has so far received little attention. An audience member noted, however, that in many cases, "the cat is out of the bag" with work that is posted onto the Internet which has not been submitted for peer review in a scientific journal."

redux [09.20.03]
The Scientist Save the Lab from Patriotic Correctness
[requires 'free' registration]

"As exemplified by the well-publicized cases of Thomas Butler, David Kelly, and Steven J. Hatfill, the fallout from the War on Terror has been particularly hazardous for scientists. Donald A. Henderson, who was inaugural director of the US Office of Public Health Preparedness, which coordinates the national response to public health emergencies, has accused the FBI of losing "all perspective" and of being "out of control" in the Butler and Hatfill investigations.

The dangers are summed up by the case of Butler, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Texas Tech University."

redux [09.13.03]
Wired News Science Suffers Security Complex

"In one telling situation, 32 scientists and editors connected to some of the most respected scientific journals have agreed to self-censor any advances they think might compromise national security.

"That's a chilling example of knowing whatever you do might not get published because an editor might decide that it will look bad for John Ashcroft," said Barry Bloom, dean of Harvard's School of Public Health."

redux [05.09.03]
The Economist Publish and perish?

"THE rapid progress of genomics means that the publication of yet another gene sequence for one of the Earth's many millions of species is not guaranteed to raise much interest. But this is no ordinary species. Bacillus anthracis is the bug that causes anthrax. The publication, in Nature, comes two months after a group of editors of the world's leading scientific journals announced they were worried about publishing information that could be used by terrorists to evil ends. New procedures had therefore been put into place to tackle this threat. The question is, do they work?"

redux [02.15.03]
BBC Bioterror fears impact free science

"A group of leading scientific journals has announced measures aimed at restricting the publication of research which could be used by bioterrorists.

In a joint statement, the journals' editors say it is crucial that concerns over terrorism do not affect the release of valuable medical research.

But they say they recognise there may be occasions when new research data should be withheld from publication because it could be abused.

redux [01.14.03]
Genomeweb Should Bioterror Fear Make Sequences Secret? For TIGR's Fraser It's a Qualified No

"Despite fears that bioterrorists will use DNA sequence data to create 21st century superpathogens, genomic science should remain public, The Institute for Genomic Research head Claire Fraser said at a special National Academies meeting on national security and the life sciences last week.

Her explanation: genomics just isn't good enough yet to provide the kind of tools terrorists need."

redux [12.01.02]
BioMedNet More bad news
[requires 'free' registration]

"Scientific information that the US government wants to keep mum, but which can't officially be labeled "classified," has been designated "sensitive but unclassified." One example is the National Academy of Science's recent report on agricultural bioterrorism. Its chapter on bioterror case studies is available only on a need-to-know basis. Other professional groups may find themselves in the same boat, but the rules governing the category are anything but clear.

Reference: Enserink, M. 2002. Entering the twilight zone of what material to censor. Science 298(5598):1548."

Thursday, December 18, 2003

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Bio-IT World 3rd Millennium Goes 'Open Source'

"3rd Millennium wants to cash in on the software it spent seven years developing for various government and commercial clients - by giving it away free.

The Waltham, Mass.-based informatics consultancy and services firm has released its Data Centric Knowledge Management System for biotech and drug R&D under a GNU general public license (GPL)."

"The company is betting that, of those life science organizations deploying the software, some will want to buy support and maintenance contracts."

redux [11.20.02]
IBM developerworks Open source in the biosciences

"Until recently, open source has often appeared to bioscientists as some sort of novelty, or, worse, a threat to IP protection. In the last few years, though, solid achievements in clustering, genomic data management, Web publication, and scores of specific "vertical" applications have established open source as a serious technical alternative.

Big Pharma and other biosciences are just starting to realize how open source can systematically cut costs, improve security, allow their own workers to shift attention back to their "core competences" from proprietary IT expertise, and even promote better science. We're in the midst of a dramatic evangelical movement that teaches better ways for open source IT to support bioscientific goals. Perhaps the most consequential shift is that participants have begun to understand that standards-based open source can enhance biosciences' fundamental values. These are exciting times for open source bioinformatics."

redux [09.30.02]
Genomeweb Is Bioinformatics--and Open-Source Software--in ABI's Future?

"Brenner, for example, stressed that while open sourcing "has potential in a generic sort of way," success depends on the operational and business models of specific companies.

Even considering a move to open sourcing can meet with resistance. "All of the instrument companies were brought up in closed-source shops, so they would have to change this fundamental attitude," explained Hood."

Bio-IT World Open Source: Not Yet a Closed Case

"THE OPEN SOURCE MOVEMENT has gained significant momentum of late, particularly within the bioinformatics field. While open source licenses vary widely, distribution of open source software typically requires delivery of both the object code and the source code. Most commercial software is delivered only in object code form, which is not easily read and modified by programmers.

The decision of whether to use open source software requires a careful analysis of various factors. In the right situations, open source software can be an excellent choice. In other cases, it can be disastrous."

redux [08.21.02]
Genomeweb How Good is Greed for Open-Source Bioinformatics?

"Want to make money from open-source bioinformatics? As long as it's not too much you might be OK.

This was the verdict of a panel of academics and business executives who had convened last week to talk broadly about open-source bioinformatics. But the discussion, which took place at the IEEE Computer Society bioinformatics conference at Stanford University, frequently veered to whether one could, or even should, make money from it.

The answer was a resounding maybe."

redux [01.16.02]
O'Reilly Network Does Publicly Funded Research Have to Result in Open Source Code?

"A debate is heating up in the academic community over whether software that is generated by publicly funded research must be released with an open source license. The Internet is one example of how releasing research code benefited the public, but the trend seems to be changing now, and universities are more likely to consider the profit opportunity. The Bayh-Dole Act paved the way for the privatization of publicly funded resources, but not everyone is happy with the results.

Against the tide of privatization comes a group of bioinformatics researchers and programmers with an online petition to require that all software created by publicly funded research projects be licensed as open source. They have founded a group and a Web site, OpenInformatics.org, to further this cause.

Here we present two opposing viewpoints on this issue."

redux [01.07.01]
IT-Analysis Open Source in Bioinformatics

"The Open Source movement is infectious, it seems. It has bubbled up in the field of bioinformatics - gene research software. Gene research is already a burgeoning area of activity, which is predicted to deliver numerous benefits to the health industry. It is also an area where software counts and where universities have managed to prosper from their activities. US universities lodge about 2000 patents each year, many in bioinformatics, and these patents contribute a good deal of revenue - an amount estimated at about $5 billion per annum, or ten percent of their total budgets. Thus Open Source activities in this area are not universally welcomed."

Salon Public money, private code

"Over the past several years, open-source software development has won high-profile adherents in the business world -- including the likes of IBM and Sun Microsystems. But it has always had its strongest fans in the academic world, where open-source software is seen as a natural extension of the idea that the fruits of academic research should be shared with everyone.

But now some academic programmers on the cutting edge have found that the licensing office is proving a more formidable obstacle to progress than the limits of their imagination and skill."

redux [11.26.01]
SiliconValley.Com Computer scientists push to publish code powering genetic research

"Before computer whiz Steven E. Brenner accepted his tenure-track research post at the University of California-Berkeley last year, he demanded that the school's intellectual property police leave him alone.

Brenner prevailed. He's now one of the few experts in the emerging field of bioinformatics with the freedom to distribute his work, software used in gene research.

``It's vital to what we do,'' says Brenner, who supports a movement to force universities to allow ``open source'' publishing of gene research software code."

redux [08.18.01]
GenomeWeb Legal Pitfalls of Free Bioinformatics Software May Loom Large

"Steve Brenner, assistant professor and leader of a computational genomics research group at the University of California, Berkeley, said he fears that many academic bioinformaticists are unaware of a legal risk they face on a daily basis: contributing to open source software projects without explicit permission from their institutions.

While many employers have clauses in their employment contracts that restrict the creation and use of open source software, bioinformatics programmers at universities are often not as attuned to copyright issues as their industry counterparts. This fact, Brenner said, raises the possibility that a good portion of biological open source software is currently being produced illegally."

"The issue seems to be coming to a head in the academic world now, as more universities are exploiting the revenue stream made possible by their copyright and patent holdings. ?If you?re a software developer, the university holds rights to your software, but if you?re an English professor or Law professor and publish a book, they?re not the least bit interested in copyright,? said Thomas Field, an attorney at the Franklin Pierce Law Center affiliated with the Association of University Technology Managers."

redux [11.05.01]
Boston Business Journal Legal issues surround programming bioinformatics

"Computers are supposed to help biotechnology, right? Isn't bioinformatics all the rage right now? Well, it is, but with popularity comes legal questions that many companies don't address until it's too late."

"It seems that many biotech companies don't realize that a computer vendor may have the rights to the software, and ultimately, the work that the biotech companies do.

For example, if a biotech company orders a computer network to help it sequence the genome of yeast, the company may ask the vendor to customize the software it will use to do the sequencing. However, the question is, who owns the right to that customized software--the biotech company or the software programmer?"

redux [08.23.01]
Stanford Medical Informatics Preprint Archive Open Source Initiatives in Bioinformatics

"This report outlines recent activity in open source software development within the discipline of bioinformatics. I present the relevant highlights of two bioinformatics meetings held in July 2001 in Copenhagen, Denmark: the Bioinformatics Open Source Conference and the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology Conference. The report also describes a large number of projects and groups important to bioinformatics open source software development. The appendices include meeting programs, the currently accepted definition of open source software, and descriptions of important online biological data sources."

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

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Bio-IT World IBM, Harvard Team to Develop 'Crimson Grid'

"Harvard University and IBM Corp. are developing a university-wide computing grid for student and faculty research, data sharing, and collaboration in life sciences, engineering, and applied sciences, they announced Wednesday.

The "Crimson Grid" will be based on OGSA (Open Grid Services Architecture) and is expected to eventually be available to other universities in the region, said Robert Eades, IBM's worldwide executive for academic, government and health in the company's life sciences division."

Saturday, December 13, 2003

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The Scientist Thinking Beyond Tomorrow
[requires 'free' registration]

"That discovery is fraught with unpredictability poses an enormous problem when evaluating research priorities and allocating funding. It also sends many scientists scrambling for cover when they are asked to prognosticate the future. The Scientist asked anyway.

Research scientists, venture capitalists, patent attorneys, even a biomedical professor-turned-mystery author offered their opinions on what will be the hottest new technologies five years hence."

Friday, December 12, 2003

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The New York Times Comparing Genomes Shows Split Between Chimps and People
[requires 'free' registration]

"In a preliminary screen, Dr. Clark and his colleagues have found that a large number of genes shows signs of accelerated evolution in the human lineage. Those are genes that, by a statistical test applied to changes in their DNA, appear to be under strong recent pressure of natural selection and so are likely to be those that make humans differ from chimpanzees.

A prominent set of accelerated human genes are those involved in hearing, particularly the gene that makes a protein called alpha-tectorin, a component of the tectorial membrane of the inner ear."

"Another group of selected genes is involved in brain development."

Thursday, December 11, 2003

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BioMedNet Comparing genomes
[requires 'free' registration]

"About three billion As, Ts, Gs, and Cs make up the human genome sequence, but other organisms that are only slightly simpler can have up to 1000 times less DNA - implying that some human DNA is redundant, says Ewan Birney of the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) in Cambridge, UK. So which sections of DNA are redundant, he asks, and which sections correspond to specific genetic traits?

The most challenging aspect of this question, says Birney who heads Ensembl, an EBI project set up to develop software to facilitate annotation of the growing volume of data on eukaryotic genomes, is how to search for genes in the human genome when it is not clear what those genes look like."

Wednesday, December 10, 2003

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Nature: Science Update Chimp genome draft completed

"Researchers today released a draft version of the genetic sequence of our closest relative, the chimpanzee Pan troglodytes.

The differences between the chimp's genetic code and ours should reveal what makes us human, scientists hope. The disparities might, for example, lie in genes that control the development of the brain and language, or of human-specific diseases such as Alzheimer's, AIDS and malaria."

redux [05.20.03]
BBC Chimps genetically close to humans

"Scientists from the Wayne State University, School of Medicine, Detroit, US, examined key genes in humans and several ape species and found our "life code" to be 99.4% the same as chimps.

They propose moving common chimps and another very closely related ape, bonobos, into the genus, Homo, the taxonomic grouping researchers use to classify people in the animal kingdom."

redux [04.29.03]
Nature: Science Update Chimps expose humanness

"By studying chimpanzees, scientists are honing their genetic view of humanity, researchers told this week's meeting of the Human Genome Organisation in Cancun, Mexico."

"The data call for some revision of the estimated genetic similarity between us and our closest relatives. Previously, human and chimp genetic sequences were quoted as being nearly 99% identical, with a difference of only a few DNA's letters. In fact, the similarity may be as low as 94-95%, says Todd Taylor of the RIKEN Genomic Sciences Center in Yokohama, Japan.

redux [03.04.03]
Wired News You Can't Make a Monkey Out of Us

"Chimpanzees seem almost human, and scientists have maintained for decades that chimps are, in fact, 98.5 percent genetically identical to humans.

But the results of a new study call that figure into question, with a finding that there are actually large chunks of the human and chimp genomes that are vastly different."

Genomeweb How to Compare Us to Our Hairy Cousins? New Papers Provide Techniques

"It involves sampling data from select regions of many different related species, and then comparing them within the context of their phylogenetic relationships. In the research described in the Science paper, Rubin and colleagues sampled 17 primate species closely related to human and spanning 40 million years of evolution -- insufficient time for significant genetic divergence to have taken place.

According to Rubin, phylogenetic shadowing compensates for the failure of traditional comparative genomics techniques, which "invariably miss recent changes in DNA sequence that account for primate-specific biological traits." The approach overcomes the primary challenge of comparing genomes of closely related species: the difficulty in distinguishing functional from nonfunctional sequences."

Monday, December 08, 2003

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Times Union A vision has yet to spark rebirth

""Unfortunately, I think there's unreal expectations," said Skolnick, the Buffalo center director. Still, he said, the center "can play a role, and perhaps a significant role" in an economic turnaround.

Even so, not everybody is on board. At Ulrich's Tavern, which calls itself Buffalo's oldest and is sandwiched between the center and an old windshield-wiper factory, an elderly man nursed a midafternoon beer and said he'd never even heard of bioinformatics.

The bar's proprietor, Jim Daley Jr., was plenty aware of it.

"I think it's the most underrated thing in Buffalo," he said. "Most people talk about the casino.""

redux [07.14.03]
UB Reporter Attendance at conference dispels any doubts about bioinformatics center

"If any doubts lingered among scientists, politicians or business executives about the future prospects for the University at Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, they were erased last Friday as nearly 200 scientists representing the U.S., Canada, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan gathered in the Adams Mark Hotel in Buffalo for the first annual "Frontiers in Bioinformatics" symposium."

"The day's events amounted to a grand show of support for the center of excellence, which was founded in 2001 by Gov. George E. Pataki"

redux [06.06.03]
Bio-IT World Senator Clinton supports bioinformatics initiative

"Despite the media barrage surrounding her new book, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton made a brief appearance in Buffalo on Friday, June 6, to praise the University of Buffalo (UB)'s ambitious Bioinformatics Center of Excellence initiative."

""It has taken a lot of work to make the case to fund bioinformatics," Clinton said. "When we started, the response was, 'What's that?' " Despite this, Clinton and Reynolds have helped to earmark more than $9 million in federal funding for the project."

Newsday.Com Bioinformatics center seeks place on world scientific map

"Scientists on the cutting edge of drug development were comparing notes in Buffalo Friday during a symposium aimed at introducing the city's developing bioinformatics center to the scientific world."

"In Buffalo, bioinformatics is viewed as perhaps the best hope to generate jobs lost with the demise of its steel and grain-milling industries. But with several other cities around the country also investing heavily in life sciences, the center's directors are well aware of the competition for staff and resources."

redux [03.02.03]
The Buffalo News JEFFREY SKOLNICK SUPERSTAR

"Jeff Skolnick didn't sign up for all this hype.

He did not apply to the following posting:

Savior wanted: A wunderkind in cutting-edge technology who can help build a new economy and carry the hopes of a Rust Belt region of 1.2 million people.

He just took a job heading a new academic program, the University at Buffalo's Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics."

redux [07.26.02]
Buffalo Business First Senate committee approves $1 million for bioinformatics center

"New York's U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton jointly announced that the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved $1 million in funding for Buffalo's planned Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics.

The $1 million was included as part of a an appropriations measure for the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development."

redux [05.01.02]
digitalMass Bioinformatics center takes shape as Buffalo seeks to redefine self

"An optimistic Pataki declared the center "will transform western New York into a 21st Century economy."

The lofty predictions come as upstate's largest city struggles to reinvent itself from a past-its-peak industrial center losing not only jobs but people: U.S. Census figures show the population has dropped to under 300,000, down from a 1950s peak of 580,000."

redux [12.07.01]
Buffalo Business First Pataki announces $200 million Bioinformatics center for Buffalo

"Buffalo will be the site of a Center of Excellence for Bioinformatics thanks to a $200 million collaboration between the public and private sectors.

Gov. George Pataki announced during a swing through Buffalo on Dec. 6 that the state will contribute $50 million to help establish the 150,000 square-foot facility to be located adjacent to the emerging Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. It is part of Pataki's $1 billion high-tech and biotech Centers of Excellence planned for across the state."