{bio,medical} informatics
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LinuxWorld
Open source appeals to bioinformatics
"Australia's bioinformatics industry will increasingly rely on open source software as researchers look for inexpensive point solutions that are not just a "black box", according to delegates at an Australian Technology Park Innovations bioinformatics symposium in Sydney.
Sydney University senior lecturer in bioinformatics, Dr Bret Church, said open source is undoubtedly the founding stone of bioinformatics.
"We love it," Dr Church said. "It is made for research, and there was plenty out there when bioinformatics came along. On the way to solutions, and while exploring possibilities and avenues, open source code tends to play a leading role.""
redux [12.18.03]
"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]
"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]
"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."
"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]
"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]
"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]
"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."
"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]
"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]
"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]
"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]
"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."
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Bio-IT World
IBM and Affymetrix Target Diagnostics
"IBM and Affymetrix have announced a joint effort to supply clinical genomics capabilities to medical research facilities and drug makers. Citing an ongoing project at the Mayo Clinic, Steve Lombardi, Affymetrix VP of development, said, "We will be able to build a regulatory-ready, large laboratory that can do genetic and genomic profiling."
Both IBM and Affymetrix have their sights set squarely on the potentially huge diagnostics market. Affymetrix will provide its genotyping platform, and IBM will offer services around systems integration and regulatory compliance."
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The Miami Herald
Bioinformatics 'Star' Criticizes Dell Computer at Buffalo,
N.Y., College
"Bioinformatics star Jeffrey Skolnick has created a stir at the University at Buffalo by criticizing his Dell supercomputer -- announced with fanfare in 2002 -- and switching his allegiance to rival IBM Corp.
The highly public flap has prompted UB administrators to come to the defense of Dell, a deep-pocketed research partner."
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ITWorld
Cambridge, MIT launch new drug discovery initiative
"The Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) is hoping to speed up the discovery of new drugs for complex diseases such as cancer, diabetes and arthritis by launching an initiative to bring together scientific and IT professionals so they can share their knowledge and collaborate on next-generation drug research."
"The Community is aimed at taking a new multidisciplinary "systems biology" approach to drug discovery that will allow it to quickly conduct experiments on multiple gene and protein properties and perform computer analysis of data. The computation models they use will help the Community predict which drugs, dosages and treatments will be the most effective for certain types of patients, spurring the development of more personalized medicine, the group said."
"Around £65 million of public money has been pumped into the joint initiative with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, set up by Chancellor Gordon Brown to produce ideas to boost British business."
"“Up to half of the money is being given to MIT – one of the best-endowed universities in the world. That money is British taxpayers’ money.”"
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Buffalo News
IBM, Buffalo uni team on supercomputing for bio deal
"The University at Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics has installed an IBM Corp. supercomputer built on blades and also will work with IBM researchers who will provide algorithms to aid protein pattern and correlation discovery, the company and the center announced Thursday."
"The new supercomputer that will handle the intensive computational work will have a peak performance of more than 1.32T flops and will consist of a cluster of 266 IBM eServer BladeCenter HS20 systems running Red Hat Advance Server 2.1 Linux."
redux [01.30.04]
"With 75 trillion bytes of capacity, about equal to 100,000 CDs, the "storage area network" will allow scientists at UB - and at partner research centers in Buffalo's medical campus - to tackle more data-heavy projects."
"The data warehouse at UB is capable of housing four times the information in the Library of Congress, according to HP. As a corporate backer of the bioinformatics center, the company has supplied elements of UBs supercomputer and has pledged $10 million in investment capital for area biotech start-ups."
redux [12.08.03]
""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]
"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]
"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."
"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]
"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]
"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]
"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 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."
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Nature: Science Update
Jaw-dropping theory of human evolution
"Researchers have proposed an answer to the vexing question of how the human brain grew so big. We may owe our superior intelligence to weak jaw muscles, they suggest.
A mutation 2.4 million years ago could have left us unable to produce one of the main proteins in primate jaw muscles, the team reports in this week's Nature. Lacking the constraints of a bulky chewing apparatus, the human skull may have been free to grow, the researchers say."
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The Mac Observer
Xserve G5 Shipping, Apple Introduces Bio Sciences Cluster
"The Xserve G5 uses a new version of the G5 processor from IBM that uses less power and generates less heat than the version used in Apple's current Power Mac G5 models. The Xserve line itself is a major component of Apple's push into the new server-oriented markets such as rendering farms, IT server rooms, and even scientific uses, which brings us to Apple's other announcement today, a new bio sciences cluster.
The company has announced the Apple Workgroup Cluster for Bioinformatics. The Cluster is based on the Xserve G5, and, as the name implies, is configured specifically for bio sciences. The solution comes with a software package from The Bio Team."
redux [02.12.04]
""For our [Mars] landing site work, we always get the highest-end desktop Mac we can find, so we just got one of the G5s with dual 2-GB processors and 8 GB of RAM," Matt Golombek, a planetary geologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told the E-Commerce Times."
""If you pull up a shot of NASA after the [first] Mars landing and look at the desktops, you'll see a couple of PC laptops there, but you'll see more PowerBooks," Jon Rubinstein, senior vice president for hardware engineering at Apple, told the E-Commerce Times."
redux [01.22.04]
"Apple's focus on creating products that should be of use to the high-performance computing markets has spawned a new, little-known product combo - the Apple Workgroup Cluster for Bioinformatics.
This is a pre-configured bioinformatics cluster built around the new Xserve G5. The cluster includes between four and 16 servers, a rack to hold the them, cabling, and systems and application software. The bundled system includes The BioTeam's iNquiry software with 200 informatics applications including BLAST and HMMER. It costs from $27,999."
"To address raw HPC processing power needs, Apple introduced a new version of its Xserve rack-mounted server that includes the PowerPC G5 processor. The new Xserve G5 delivers more than 30 gigaFLOPS (30 billion floating point operations per second). This is about 60 percent more raw processing than the original Xserve, which used the PowerPC G4 processor."
"Apple has always been known for its easy-to-use products. So as the company moves into the enterprise HPC market, it is trying to retain the well-liked "ease-of-use" features in more-complex computing environments."
redux [01.06.04]
"Apple today previewed Xgrid, a computational clustering technology from Apple's Advanced Computation Group (ACG). Xgrid helps scientists and others working in compute intensive environments to fully utilize all IT resources, including desktops and servers, by creating a grid enabled "virtual" IT environment that takes advantage of unused computing capacity to run batch and workload processing."
""The Xgrid BLAST application enables bioinformatics researchers to perform distributed BLAST searches on a cluster running the Xgrid software," said Richard H. Scheller, Ph.D., senior vice president of Research, Genentech in the press release. "We tested Xgrid BLAST by querying DNA sequence files for matches against multi- gigabyte genomic databases on a cluster of four dual-processor Xserves.""
redux [11.26.03]
"Dr Elia Stupka (left), Bioinformatics Programme manager, Laboratory of Computational Biology said, "The Xserve is suitable to TTL because the operating system (OS) X Unix-based open source application can be ported and run easily. And integration with specific software tools is seamless.""
"In addition, he could use the same OS on his desktops, portable computers and network cluster. Stupka sought to tap on the unused computing power of all the devices in the cluster."
redux [10.31.03]
"The latest semi-official numbers concerning the speed of Virginia Tech's "Big Mac" supercomputer rank it as the third-fastest machine on the planet.
The system's architect, Srinidhi Varadarajan, said Tuesday evening that the newly completed supercomputer operates at 9.55 trillion operations a second, or 9.55 teraflops."
"It's a shame that Apple no longer runs the "Switch" campaign on television. Dr. Srinidhi Varadarajan would make an excellent spokesperson for moving to the Mac."
" His ad might go something like this. "I was in the market for a new machine. I was hoping to get ten teraflops by the end of the year. I'd never used a Mac and had been looking at Dells and IBMs. Then Apple released the G5 on June 23. A week later I bought 1,100 duals online at the Apple Store. I'm Srinidhi Varadarajan and I build Supercomputers at Virginia Tech.""
redux [10.25.03]
"Tribble, one of the designers of the original Macintosh user interface, said that with the advent of the Power Mac G5 and the OS X operating system, the Macintosh now has the Unix backbone, 64-bit processing power, Windows interoperability, and open source credibility to be a viable computing platform in the life sciences space.
"Really, for the first time in this industry, you have a computer that can do all the scientific applications, and you can run Microsoft Office," he said. "It's been kind of a Holy Grail that started with Mac OS X.""
redux [03.30.03]
"iNquiry combines the technology The BioTeam developed for Texas A&M into a system that other bioscientists can use to create their own Xserve clusters in a matter of minutes instead of weeks, according to Van Etten. The secret is another Apple product -- the iPod.
Wholly self-contained in about 2GB of storage space on the iPod, iNquiry uses a Perl-based script that's controlled through a simple graphical configuration utility. The user tells the configuration utility how to configure the Xserve cluster, how many nodes it has, how the network is configured, and how to use the individual drive bays in each Xserve."
redux [11.06.02]
"While it sounds neat to put the human genome on a hip-looking device people more commonly use to crank out Mos Def tunes, some researchers say using it to store the blueprint for humankind is not entirely practical."
""If you're walking back and forth (to transfer data) that's not good," said Richard Gibbs, director of the human genome sequencing center at Baylor College of Medicine. "It's often tempting to do that because of bandwidth, but the smart thing to do is make sure you have the proper infrastructure to (transfer data).""
redux [10.29.02]
"Dr. Will Gilbert likes to carry the human genome around on his iPod. It's the easiest way, he says, to transfer the genome -- 3 billion chemical "letters" that make up a person's genetic code, or DNA -- to the computers of other researchers at the Hubbard Center for Genome Studies at the University of New Hampshire.
Gilbert had set up a research project involving the human genome on his Power Mac, using the Apple/Genentech version of BLAST. A breakthrough implementation of the popular bioinformatics tool from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), A/G BLAST conducts high-speed DNA searches in biomedical research and drug discovery. "But," says Gilbert, "I wanted to run the project down the hall on another Mac. Rather than copy it across the network, I'd pull out my iPod. Plug it in, drag, drop, zip, boom, bang and walk it down the hall.""
redux [08.20.02]
"High-powered computers are the "tech" in biotechnology. So it's no surprise that Cambridge-based biotech giant Genzyme Corp. uses lots of muscular workstation machines, most of them running the sophisticated Unix operating system.
But what is surprising is that some of these powerful Unix boxes bear the trademark of Apple Computer Inc. They're Macintoshes -- the same user-friendly computers that have earned Apple a loyal following among artists, publishers, and home computer users."
redux [07.01.02]
"Apple Computer has become the first member of a program launched by open-source advocacy-group Bioinformatics.org that aims at linking open-source developers with bioinformatics hardware and software vendors.
Apple's new Co-Lab program hopes to nurture industry involvement either by co-locating software projects at its SourceForge-based Open Lab project or by hosting and sharing those projects with developers at vendor sites via the web, according to Bioinformatics.org president and founder Jeff Bizarro."
redux [05.19.02]
"Platform Computing plans to make its flagship Platform LSF software available for Apple's new Xserve, extending support for Mac OS X and Apple's new server, storage and systems management offerings.
"The combination of the Mac Xserve with Platform Computing's technology will enhance the quality and speed of work for Mac applications in life sciences, education and business," Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations, said in a statement."
" Genentech -- Guy Kraines, vice president, Corporate IT. We got to use them, and we've got some observations. First, this is not a desktop box with rack-mount ears. From the physical design, the hot-swap capabilities, the remote monitoring -- this is a data center box. My guys in the data center are fully accepting of it. They did it right, right down to cable management. Second, performance. The G4 itself is a heck of a processor, especially with what we do. Velocity Engine doesn't just do Photoshop rendering well -- it does matching of genetic code really well too. The single most common application in bioinformatics is Blast. I'm not going to give you numbers today in terms of what we've done, but let's just say that this is not just a measurable improvement, but a meaningful improvement in helping us do what we need to do."
redux [12.16.01]
"Scientists are porting bioinformatics tools to the Macintosh platform because often they are already Macintosh users, and they want the convenience of being able to perform their research on their primary desktop computers. Traditionally scientific researchers have needed a desktop computer for all of their productivity applications, and a separate platform for the compute engine to support their research. "The tremendous benefit of Mac OS X is it gives you both," says Van Etten. "The only thing that comes close is Linux, but for most bioinformaticists, the Linux desktop user experience is a little sophisticated.""
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Express Computer India
Has the bioinformatics dream soured?
"It was touted as one of the biggest markets Indian software companies could address. But somewhere along the way, the market scenario has changed and today only a few focused companies are still looking at bioinformatics as the next big opportunity, says Srikanth R P."
"While the market potential for bioinformatics is huge few Indian companies have the skill sets or the ability to capture a significant share of the market."
redux [02.23.04]
"Indian pharmas are also waking up to the fact that 'ripping off' patented drugs is becoming more difficult with 'legit piracy' no longer a real option. It's in this changed scene that India plans to make a splash.
A well-developed base industry such as pharma gives India a distinct advantage over others in the biotech boom. It already has a good network of research labs and scores of bioinformatic units have been set up by IT companies across the country. Add to these a rich biodiversity and access to diverse disease populations, and India is ready to ride the wave. At the forefront of this 'petri-dish revolution' will be drug companies -- especially those that manage to add bioinformatics to the already existing arsenal of molecule'n'mortar process."
redux [02.11.04]
"Software major Sun Microsystems would set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for medical bio-informatics at Centre for DNA Fingerprinting Analysis and Development (CDFD) here. The CoE would help in analysis, storage of biological research in areas like genomics, structural biology and molecular evolutionary genetics."
"The proposed CoE is the ninth major medical bio-informatics centre established by Sun in the world and first in India."
redux [10.20.03]
"Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is on track to launch it's biotech software package 'Bio-Suite' by April '04. The software, which will be used in analysing and accelerating drug discovery processes, is being developed in partnership with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)."
"The software consists of eight 'blocks' covering all aspects of computational biology ranging from genomics to structure-based drug design. In all, Bio-Suite encompasses more than 200 individual algorithms, and is designed to be highly modular so that new algorithms can be added as scientific advances take place."
redux [08.07.03]
"Sun Microsystems has made a proposal to the department of biotechnology to invest in bioinformatics projects in India and to collaborate with various R&D institutions under the department in this burgeoning area. DBT's Task Force on bioinformatics has asked to multinational to specify the quantum of investment and the specific areas of bioinformatics wherein alliances could be forged with Indian institutes."
Official sources said that the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting & Diagnostics, Hyderabad which has an alliance with software services major Tata Consultancy Services, would possibly be a nodal centre for the joint venture project with Sun."
redux [07.14.03]
"The report estimates that currently up to 10 per cent of investment in R&D is IT-related, and hence there is huge potential for Indian biotech and IT companies to enter into collaborative bioinformatics research with global pharma majors in the near term.
The report, however, indicated that despite India's IT capabilities, it may be difficuly to replicate this success in biotechnology as biotechnology differs from IT in many ways. Avendus suggests that Indian players will have to leverage upon the lower costs of infrastructure and human resources. The cost of setting up and running a bioinformatics company in India is a fraction of the cost in the US."
redux [03.18.03]
"Despite several strengths inherent, India's biotechnology industry is not able to take a quantum jump mainly due to lack of capital and low R&D spending, absence of industry-academic partnership and the mismatch between strategic research, product planning and effective collaboration.
The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) paper on Business of Biotechnology has pointed out that India has several options with the main focus on informatics. Bioinformatics is crucial for the advancement of the biotech industry by cutting the timeframe and costs in developing a product tremendously."
"Everyone in the room, from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello, was beaming at last week's announcement.
The news was that Asia's largest computer consultant has become a deep-pocket partner of the University at Buffalo. Under an agreement signed Monday, Tata Consultancy Services of India will partner with local researchers and help transform their discoveries into money-making products."
"But some in the tech community voiced concern that the state's $100 million-plus bioinformatics investment will wind up boosting the economy in Bombay instead of Buffalo."
redux [12.13.02]
[requires 'free' registration]
"India is set to reap substantial rewards in the field of functional genomics, thanks to an invaluable genetic resource and highly advanced IT expertise, predicts Samir Brahmachari, director of the country's Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi."
"Brahmachari sees India's genetic resource - not the biological samples themselves, but the associated information - as a tradable commodity. Data can be processed using India's unparalleled IT expertise, he says: The country's IT industry generated about $10 billion in revenues this year, and has continued to grow by 50% each year over the past decade. The information, once processed, represents an "intellectual-property protectable" commodity, he says."
redux [06.23.02]
"Also, India's success in information technology provides excellent opportunities in the field of bioinformatics.
"Traditional IT companies are translating their strong capabilities in data mining and warehousing to business models based on biological data," says the report, citing examples of IBM's India Research Lab and Satyam's five-year agreement with the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad."
redux [02.13.02]
"India's biotech boom could even dwarf software in coming years if you trust the most optimistic projections. Much of our $2.5-billion biotech market relies on low-end products like vaccines, but experts predict that as more start-ups come up, that could change dramatically."
"The need to dive into this ocean of genetic data for hidden treasures has created a whole new discipline--bio-informatics, the science of using information technology (IT) to decipher the genomic jumble. Thanks to a flourishing IT industry, bioinformatics is today the darling of venture capitalists, drug firms, and, of course, IT majors. So, Satyam Computers has signed a five-year alliance with CCMB to create, store, and annotate genetic databases, and it is angling for contracts from global bigpharma to sequence genes and build protein catalogs. Strand Genomics, a Bangalore-based bio-informatics start-up, is designing tools to accelerate drug discovery."
redux [09.17.01]
"India has the potential to garner 8-10 per cent of the global software market in the next few years from the current levels of just 1.5 per cent, but the country?s planners need to focus on improving computer penetration and use of Indian made software in the industry.
This was the view of FC Kohli, chairman, Tata Consultancy Services, while speaking at Connect 2001, an international conference and exhibition on information technology, communication technologies and bioinformatics, which opened on Thursday. Currently, India's IT exports are about $8.7 billion."
redux [08.27.01]
"THE mood is one of caution as far as bioinformatics is concerned. The beginning of the year saw hype building up around the fledgling industry as the next big gold rush for India.
But six months after the first bioinformatics seminar in the country, with the IT industry's lesson on hype fresh in mind, things are moving at a more sedate pace."
"In India, bioinformatics training institutes have already begun to mushroom. Bangalore and Hyderabad have around five private training institutes between them. However, the industry is sceptical about the quality of manpower these centres can supply because most of them have short-term courses offering basic skills, says Dr. Sabharwal. In all fairness to them she adds, "We need to wait for a few months to see the outcome of it all.""
[ rhetoric ]
“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.”
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