Oxford Nanopore opens new bioinformatics shop

With an eye toward recruiting top brains in informatics, Oxford Nanopore Technologies says that it has opened a new hub in Cambridge, U.K. The developer of DNA sequencers has also expanded its presence in its home base of Oxford, U.K.

The deal comes about three months after Oxford Nanopore--which is advancing a system for electronic analysis of single molecules and DNA sequencing--raised £25 million in a financing. With the capital infusion, the life sciences firm aims to recruit around 20 new staffers for both its Oxford and Cambridge operations, BusinessWeekly reported.

"The Cambridge location helps us to attract the best informaticians," said Gordon Sanghera, the 6-year-old company's CEO. "Because the European informatics community has such strong links to Cambridge, we believe it will be critical to have a facility there to support our current and future informatics staff."

Cambridge is already home to some of the U.K.'s top life sciences operations. As BusinessWeekly reports, Oxford Nanopore is moving into the Chestford Research Park, which already houses an outpost of drug giant Pfizer as well as R&D firm BioFocus and younger outfits such as Cellzome and Isogenica.

Here's the release

Check out BusinessWeekly's report

Related Articles

Sequencing oversize BGI advances in bioinformatics game

Sequencing oversize BGI advances in bioinformatics game

BGI apparently isn't satisfied with being the largest genome sequencing outfit in the world. The Chinese sequencing giant has a host of new and updated bioinformatics software offerings, which appear to expand the breadth of depth of its capabilities in the sequencing market. The company provided a first glimpse at the technology in an event and release yesterday.

For starters, the Shenzhen, China-based company revealed its updated software used in assembling raw genomic data into coherent sequences. To make sequence information useful to scientists, the firm showed it latest tools for analyzing the data to identify abnormalities in the sequence that could aid in disease research. The company has also developed cloud-based applications to enable its customers to, say, assemble sequencing data more quickly and cheaply than traditional computing methods.

Already boasting a massive sequencing operation in China, BGI clearly sees the value in providing services and technology beyond decoding genomes for customers. As sequencing a genome--which can now be done for roughly $5,000--has become more of a commodity service, BGI and its competitors such as Complete Genomics ($GNOM) are jockeying to capture growing demand for technology and services that help customers such as drug R&D groups identify the gene mutations and other abnormalities in genomes that make sequencing information useful in their research.

"These new capabilities enhance and complement BGI's existing state-of-the-art bioinformatics software applications for individual and population based research in animals, plants, microbes and human disease areas," said Yingrui Li, director of the science and technology department at BGI. "This is the first time BGI has provided detailed insights into our latest bioinformatics applications, pipelines and tools."

Find a earlier look at the new software in Bio-IT World's piece

BGI announce Cloud Genome Assembly Service

By Allison Proffitt 

July 6, 2011 | SHENZHEN, CHINA-At the BGI Bioinformatics Software Release Conference today, researchers announced two new Cloud-based software-as-a-service offerings for next-gen data analysis. Hecate and Gaea (named for Greek gods) are “flexible computing” solutions for de novo assembly and genome resequencing.  

These are “cloud-based services for genetic researchers” so that researchers don’t need to “purchase your own cloud clusters,” said Evan Xiang, part of the flexible computing group at BGI Shenzhen. Hecate will do de novo assembly, and Gaea will run the SOAP2, BWA, Samtools, DIndel, and BGI’s realSFS algorithms. Xiang expects an updated version of Gaea to be released later this year with more algorithms available.  

Flexible computing, explained Xiang, is a more efficient cluster architecture than traditional Cloud. Jobs of different types are grouped on the cluster to make the most of computing power and address scalability issues. For instance, CPU intensive jobs are grouped; memory-intensive jobs are grouped; and input/output intensive jobs are grouped.  

Both the Hecate and Gaea services will run on the BGI compute cluster because “Amazon is slow,” Xiang said. Running the services on an in-house cluster also alleviates any internet access issues.  

Hecate is based on a series of distributed algorithms to recognize and simplify non-branching repeat-free regions of the genome, correct errors and resolve the ambiguous bubbles and short repeats, together with the distributed graph shrinkage algorithms to construct a linear DNA sequence. Based on BGI’s SOAPdenovo and SOAP2 algorithms, Hecate is more scalable than those algorithms alone.  

Xiang presented results from speed comparisons showing significant cost and time savings using Hecate for de novo assembly. Running SOAPdenovo on a single server for 70 hours resulted in 80% genome coverage at a hardware price of $150,000. Using 96 Hecate cores, the genome coverage increased to 84% in 42 hours at a price of $60,000.  

Gaea is designed to distribute resequencing computation to a cluster of nodes based on the Hadoop Streaming framework with personalized algorithm interfaces for SOAP and BWA. For the current version of Gaea (v 1.2), Xiang reported speed increases of 75x for SOAP2 and 90x for BWA using 100 cores. At 400 cores those numbers rose to 300x and 346x speed increases compared to running either algorithm on a single core. Xiang expects Gaea v 2.0 to see further improvements.  

Gaea is also optimized for a biomarker analysis toolkit that includes SOAPsnp, DIndel and realSFS for SNP calling, indel calling and gap alignment.  

More details about both products as well as a host of updated bioinformatics tools released at the event are available at soap.Genomics.Org.Cn.

Make sense here to login and leave a comment.

Oxford biotech hiring for new Cambridge informatics base

Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd is hiring staff for a new informatics outstation in the Cambridge BioMedTech cluster.

The company, which recently raised £25 million, is seeking around 20 new recruits for both its Oxford and Cambridge UK operations after taking space at Chesterford Research Park’s Mansion House.

The new base is designed to leverage Cambridge’s world-class bioinformatics expertise and strong links with key players in the sector across Europe. The move is a rare Oxbridge foray into the Cambridge bio cluster.

Oxford Nanopore is also expanding its Oxford HQ. The company develops nanopore technology for the direct, electronic analysis of single molecules.

The new informatics facility at Chesterford will provide an additional base for the company’s growing team of informaticians.

CEO Gordon Sanghera said: “Oxford Nanopore is growing rapidly. We are expanding existing groups and adding new functions, and these new premises give us long-term growth capacity.

“The new Oxford facility allows us to expand R & D, production and quality functions at our headquarters. Meanwhile, the Cambridge location helps us to attract the best informaticians.

“Because the European informatics community has such strong links to Cambridge, we believe it is critical to have a facility there to support our current and future informatics staff.”

Chesterford Research Park provides a unique range of facilities and a prime working environment for some of the more established pioneers in R & D such as Pfizer and Biofocus, as well as the innovative newer breed of biotechnology companies such as Cellzome and Isogenica.

Oxford Nanopore joins the park at a time of significant growth, with the new Science Village development now well underway. The multi-million pound speculative development will total 33,700 sq ft - providing 28,000 sq ft of highly flexible, energy efficient, state-of-the-art R & D laboratory and office space.

Designed to encourage occupancy by up to 16 biotech and next generation R & D companies with their associated economic opportunities, the Science Village building will be a big draw to local companies and those seeking to locate within the South Cambridge biotech cluster.

Oxford Nanopore is currently recruiting for various positions in its Cambridge and Oxford locations. For more information visit www.Nanoporetech.Com/vacancies.

• Photograph shows: Gordon Sanghera, CEO, Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd.

Related Articles

    Babraham hosts inaugural BioAcademic showcase

Babraham hosts inaugural BioAcademic showcase

Babraham Bioscience Technologies (BBT), the commercial arm of the Babraham Institute, hosted an inaugural Cambridge BioAcademic Showcase - established to bring leading academic research institutions together with industry to explore research synergy and opportunities for future collaboration.

The event showcased the research of 15 scientists from The Babraham Institute, The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, The MRC’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology, The University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University and attracted over 100 delegates from the life sciences community.

Representatives from local and international companies including MedImmune, GSK, Abcam, Cellzome, Pfizer, Merck and biotech companies from the Babraham Campus gathered to hear the highlights from local researchers. These ranged from antibody therapies, novel biotherapeutics, genomic approaches to personalise cancer treatments and innovative approaches using stem cells for genetic screening. A number of investors also attended from Imperial Innovations and Corporate Venture groups.

The event was conceived to bring together potential partners from the different realms of the discovery process and increase early-stage collaboration between industry and academia.

Rob Pinnock, Director Scientific Liaison at Merck - sponsor of the event -  gave the keynote lecture outlining new approaches to enable Pharma to engage effectively with the academic research base.

He explained: “At Merck/MSD we recognise the critical role of academic and biotech scientists in biomedical discovery. Events such as the BioAcademic Showcase provide an important forum to enable dialogue and cultivate scientific exchange as we seek to identify collaborators with whom we can combine our strengths and share our successes.”

Dr Belinda Clarke, Director of External Relations at ideaSpace in Cambridge, added: “We are seeing relationships forged earlier and earlier in the development life cycle between industry and academia and the BioAcademic Showcase provided an ideal forum for bringing the key players together.

“I am optimistic this event will make a valuable contribution to catalysing such relationships with the ultimate vision of creating some new and innovative early-stage ventures in the biomedical sector.”

David Davison, Director of Corporate Services at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute said the institute was delighted to be part of the first Bio-Academic Showcase.

“It was an ideal opportunity to meet with fellow researchers and colleagues from the pharmaceutical and biotech industry to discuss the latest discoveries from human and pathogen genomes,” he said.

“We hope this will help drive forward the translation of our innovative research and technologies into resources that will have the greatest impact in improving human health.”

Dr Klaus Okkenhaug is one of Babraham’s group leaders whose research has identified potential non-immunosuppressive cancer therapies. He commented: “The event succeeded in showcasing some of the most exciting and innovative biomedical research going on the Cambridge area and provided opportunities to meet with company executives in an informal environment.”

As a leading hub of life sciences innovation in the UK, the Babraham Research Campus plays a key role supporting the region’s early-stage biomedical enterprises and helping to attract inward investment.

While known for its Biotechnology Investment Forum, aimed at early-stage companies seeking investment, BBT’s latest pioneering event was designed to bring early-stage academic research with commercialisation potential to the attention of industry to foster knowledge exchange between academia and industry as well as within academia.

Derek Jones, BBT’s CEO said: “The BioAcademic Showcase was an ideal forum to bring together academia and industry to better understand each others’ needs and to help identify research areas that are of greatest interest and present an opportunity for commercialisation.

“Feedback from delegates demonstrates that this first Showcase was successful in its aims so we will be planning further ‘show and tell’ opportunities with our partner organisations.”

A unique aspect of the Babraham Campus is the proximity of a world-leading academic institute with commercial ventures, potentially facilitating the translation of ideas emanating from basic bioscience research into industry.

“This event is part of the campus’ wider communications strategy to strengthen links between academia and industry, to explore research synergy and foster knowledge exchange,” explained Dr Claire Cockcroft, Head of External Relations at the Babraham Institute, which receives strategic support from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

“This event follows the launch last month of our Knowledge Exchange Forum, aimed specifically at bringing our institute scientists together with campus-based companies to explore potential collaborative avenues.

“These events have catalysed many new conversations and an application by a Babraham scientist and campus company to BBSRC’s Industry Interchange Scheme, which supports short-term exchanges between the UK science base and industry.”

• Photograph shows: BBT CEO, Derek Jones

Oxford Nanopore expands Oxford headquarters and opens new informatics outstation in Cambridge, U.K.

OXFORD, United Kingdom--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Ltd announces the expansion of its Oxford headquarters and the opening of a new Oxford Nanopore informatics outstation in Cambridge, UK.

These new premises will support further corporate development of Oxford Nanopore following its recent £25 million fundraising. New space at Florey House, Oxford Science Park, adds to existing laboratories and offices at Edmund Cartwright House, expanding the Company's headquarters from 10,000 square feet to 17,000 square feet. The new Oxford Nanopore informatics facility at Chesterford Research Park, Cambridge, will provide an additional base for the Company's growing team of informaticians.

"Oxford Nanopore is growing rapidly. We are expanding existing groups and adding new functions, and these new premises give us long term growth capacity," said Gordon Sanghera, CEO. "The new Oxford facility allows us to expand R&D, production and quality functions at our headquarters. Meanwhile, the Cambridge location helps us to attract the best informaticians. Because the European informatics community has such strong links to Cambridge, we believe it will be critical to have a facility there to support our current and future informatics staff."

Oxford Nanopore is recruiting for various positions in its Oxford and Cambridge locations. For more information please visit www.Nanoporetech.Com/vacancies.

Notes to editors

 For information on Oxford Nanopore's locations please visit: Http://www.Nanoporetech.Com/contact.

Oxford Nanopore Technologies

 Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd is developing a novel technology for direct, electronic detection and analysis of single molecules using nanopores. The modular, scalable GridION technology platform is designed to offer substantial benefits in a variety of applications.

The Company is developing two techniques for DNA sequencing: Exonuclease Sequencing and Strand Sequencing, both of which combine a protein nanopore with a processive enzyme for the analysis of DNA. The system is also compatible with the direct analysis of RNA. Oxford Nanopore is also developing a Protein Analysis technology that combines target proteins with ligands for direct, electronic analysis using protein nanopores. These nanopore sensing techniques are combined with the Company's proprietary array chip within the GridION system. The Company also has collaborations for the development of solid-state nanopores.

Oxford Nanopore has collaborations and exclusive licensing deals with leading institutions including the University of Oxford, Harvard and UCSC. The Company has funding programmes in these laboratories to support the science of nanopore sensing. Oxford Nanopore has licensed or owns more than 300 patents and patent applications that relate to many aspects of nanopore sensing from protein nanopores to solid state nanopores and for the analysis of DNA, proteins and other molecules. This includes the use of functionalised solid-state nanopores for molecular characterisation, methods of fabricating solid-state nanopores and modifications of solid-state nanopores to adjust sensitivity or other parameters

Biomolecular computer promising in diagnostics

There's more progress in developing devices that use of biological molecules to compute information in our bodies to diagnose disease and release drugs. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have published findings in Nano Letters with their tiny computer that is designed to detect multiple molecular signs of disease.

"We envision nanometer-sized computing devices (made of biomolecules such as DNA) to roam our bodies in search of diseases in their early stage," Binyamin Gil, of the Weizmann Institute, tells PhysOrg.Com in an article published last week. "These devices would have the ability to sense disease indicators, diagnose the disease and treat it by administering or activating a therapeutic biomolecule. They could be delivered to the bloodstream or operate inside cells of a specific organ or tissue and be given as a preventive care."

The convergence of computer science and molecular biology, among other fields, has been hot as of late. Last month, a group from Caltech trumpeted their own progress in developing an advanced DNA computer with potential applications in disease diagnostics and research. Yet routine use of the devices in humans is likely years away and will require the tiny devices to hold together in the body long enough to do their job.

Published June 14 in Nano Letters, the Weizmann Institute group's research describes a biomolecular computer that can detect such molecular indicators as mRNA, small molecules and a DNA binding protein.

Related Article:

DNA computer tackles problems with code of life

DNA computer tackles effort with code of living

Every once in a while at FierceBiotech IT, we like to dip into what's happening in wet labs--especially when it involves computer science. And perhaps there's no better convergence of wet lab experiments and computer science than the DNA computer, the most sophisticated of which was detailed recently in the journal Science.

Developed at Caltech, this marvel consists of 74 strands or DNA put into a dozen gates that control their movements based on logic similar to that found in conventional computers, according to a story in Bloomberg. The DNA computers aren't nearly as fast as their silicon-based brethren, but their potential applications include interacting with components in living cells, and that could lead to new ways to develop drugs or find signs of disease.

"There are many potential applications," Erik Winfree, a professor of computer science and bioengineering at Caltech, told Bloomberg. "People built a PC and didn't know what they'd be good for. Then programs like spreadsheets and word processors came around, and the builders were surprised by these applications we now don't know how to live without."

Winfree's research "is crossing the gulf between chemistry in the laboratory and chemistry in the cell," USC computer scientist Leonard Adleman, a pioneer of programming a mathematical equation into DNA, said, as quoted by the LA Times. The goal is no longer to be massively fast, or to do a lot of operations. The goal is to be able to carry out computations and algorithms in a wet molecular environment."

Related Article:

Researchers progress DNA-based computer

New encoding words will make DNA

New encoding words will make DNA

Bioinformatics scientists have built two logic gates for what they hope will become a new programming language for drug design as well as chemical and agricultural product engineering. The accomplishment seems hardly noteworthy except that these logic gates are made of E. Coli.

The two computational switches are based on two strains of the common bacterium. Researchers are now working to assemble them to perform computations.

This genetic programming software would resemble any other programming language, says Kevin Clancy, senior staff scientist for bioinformatics at Life Technologies Corp. The Carlsbad, CA, company is funding the work, which is being done by researchers at the UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy. Life Tech plans to commercialize the technology.

The software would convert instructions into a DNA sequence to be inserted into a bacterial, yeast or mammal cell. "It allows you to access and rewire biological systems on a scale that hasn't been possible in genetic engineering to date," says Christopher Voigt, UCSF associate professor.

Related Article:

GPU elevates PC to discovery platform

GPU elevates PC to discovery platform

Visual-computing solutions provider NVIDIA sees computational biology as "one of the lowest hanging fruits" that can benefit from application acceleration via graphics processing units. Performance increases on the order of 10 to 100 times that of a central processing unit are "fairly typical," the company says in an industry magazine.

Another GPU plus: Cutting the cost of high-performance computing, which is especially problematic for those who need it most--namely small and mid-sized biotech researchers. Graphics hardware and software yield processing performance increases in standard PCs.

NVIDIA recently unveiled the Tesla Bio Workbench, which comprises GPU-optimized bioscience applications for use by researchers studying molecular dynamics and quantum chemistry. The Workbench offering includes access to a community site for downloading applications. The site also provides benchmark data, academic papers and tutorials, and discussion forums.

The GPU approach allows small-scale simulations on GPU workstations and large-scale simulations via GPU workstation clusters and code scaling. Such a technique lets researchers simulate large molecules without the need for supercomputer time.

Researchers progress DNA-based computer

Researchers at Columbia University have developed a second-generation computer that uses DNA circuitry instead of silicon. MAYA-II is faster than MAYA-I but still lags far behind silicon in overall speed. Where the DNA-based circuitry is superior is in fluid analysis. And the researchers say their work points to a new generation of computers that will be able to detect viruses like West Nile or bird flu much faster than today's instruments. They add that the DNA-based computers are likely to allow the development of new instruments for the detection and treatment of a broad range of ailments. At some point, DNA-based computers may be inserted in the body to kill cancer cells, release therapeutics or detect disease at an early stage.

Presently lone express... Bioinformatics

What do we tell this year's crop of graduates as they plot their futures? How about telling them about the future prospects of bioinformatics.

In a recent story, BioWorld contributor Ilene Schneider takes the pulse of where the jobs are in life sciences today and in the future. Two hot fields, according to her sources, are bioinformatics and systems biology.

Janet Thorton, director of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, told Schneider: "Bioinformatics extracts knowledge from the data that underlie systems biology, for creating hypotheses and models. Almost every experiment now involves multiple sources of data, requiring the ability to handle those data and to draw out inferences and knowledge. Bioinformatics has evolved rapidly over the past 15 years and is now quite ubiquitous."

Information technology is playing a central role in boosting pharma R&D productivity, which has been notoriously slow, expensive and inefficient. For example, bioinformatics software enables scientists to analyze the tsunami of genomic data being made available from next-generation DNA sequencers. There many more opportunities for bioinformatics tools to support biological studies, with the potential to speed discoveries that lead to the development of game-changing new drugs. It's no surprise to see that Drexel University and others are beefing up their informatics offerings.

Verify absent the Bio World editorial - Artical 

New Technology Must Be Used to guide Students to High-Tech career

By Ilene Schneider

BioWorld Perspectives Contributing Writer

What and where are the hot jobs in the life sciences during the next decade?

Systems biology, informatics and information technology are looking like good bets, according to a number of researchers and educators. Bioengineering is looking good too, according to a recent report from the National Institutes of Health. Other key areas for hiring in the next ten years will be in regulatory, quality and clinical positions. But, to ensure that enough candidates enter these fields and receive training, teachers and parents are looking to new methods by which to spur students' interest in science.

Systems Biology and Bioinformatics Set a Future Standard

According to Bernhard Palsson, of the University of California, San Diego, there is "unprecedented opportunity" in systems biology and bioinformatics, which seek not only biologists, but also engineers, chemists, mathematicians and computer programmers.

"New systems biology centers are being established worldwide," added Lynn Hlatky, director of the center of cancer systems biology at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center at Tufts University in Boston.

"To get a life science job in 10 or 20 years, you will simply be expected to have competency in these areas," said Jens Nielsen, professor of systems biology at Chalmers University of Technology, in Göteborg, Sweden.

Systems analysis and bioinformatics are separate, but interdependent. According to Janet Thornton, director of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), of Heidelberg, Germany:

    "Bioinformatics extracts knowledge from the data that underlie systems biology, for creating hypotheses and models. Almost every experiment now involves multiple sources of data, requiring the ability to handle those data and to draw out inferences and knowledge. Bioinformatics has evolved rapidly over the past 15 years and is now quite ubiquitous."

Another area of major growth is systems medicine. Hlatky predicted that "progress in analyzing physiological networks, integrating data from multiple levels and monitoring biological changes over time will have a major impact." In addition, physicians will "pay more attention to all the parts, and recognize connections between different medical disciplines, like cancer and cardiology. Medicine will become more of what it is supposed to be, an integrated treatment of the individual."

As related in an article in Science, job opportunities in these fields are not necessarily tied to a specific geographic location, as researchers worldwide can collaborate on projects.

Bioengineering Promises to Be Another Top Field

According to another article about the hot jobs of the future, the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics counted approximately 7,600 bioengineering and biomedical engineering jobs in a recent survey. Most bioengineering specialists' work is in manufacturing industries, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, medical instrument development and health care supply. Others work for hospitals, government agencies or as independent contractors or consultants.

The government predicts that bioengineering and biomedical engineering jobs will increase by nearly 32 percent over the next five years. During the next decade, bioengineering positions are projected to increase at nearly double the average rate for all other types of jobs. "An aging population, focused on health and quality of life issues, has increased the demand for better medical devices and equipment," according to WorldWideLearn.Com. "Coupled with this long-term trend is an industrial concern for cost efficiency and effectiveness."

Recently, Medical Device Daily, the sister publication of BioWorld Today, reported that the growth areas in life science jobs were in IT finance and regulatory, quality and clinical jobs. In the August 5 issue, Omar Ford quoted an index developed by ZRG Partners, of West Borough, Mass. The index also showed job growth in medical device and supply and life science areas.

Astellas/iBIO Survey Sheds Light on How to Spur Students Toward Science

With the number of biotech jobs set to increase, a major concern among industry is having enough trained applicants to fill these positions.

A national survey released October 28 showed that large percentages of science teachers and parents strongly agree that demonstrating real-life applications in science (87 percent and 72 percent, respectively) can help make science education more interesting for U.S. Students. Almost all science teachers (99 percent) and nine in ten parents said they felt that science education is important, if not very important, for a child's future, but that it needs to be more engaging to capture the attention of children in America today (97 percent and 96 percent, respectively). The survey, conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of iBIO Institute, of Chicago, and Deerfield, Ill.-based Astellas Pharma US Inc. Included a sample of 235 science teachers and 300 parents with school-age children in kindergarten through 12th grade.

"It is important that students today understand that science is more than what they read in a text book," said David Miller, president and CEO of iBIO Institute, in a press release. "As educators, parents and mentors, it is our responsibility to take science beyond the pages of a book. By developing creative and innovative lesson plans that demonstrate the cause and effect of science, we have the opportunity to bring science to life for our children."

To spur student interest in science, the survey also showed that science teachers and parents feel very strongly that using outside mentors (46 percent and 51 percent, respectively) and leveraging technology resources such as the Internet (73 percent, 56 percent) can play an important role. In fact, almost all science teachers and parents agree that the Internet should be used more to make interesting science education materials available to teachers (97 percent and 92 percent, respectively) and to provide support for mentoring efforts (99 percent, 96 percent). They also believe that it can be a great tool for parents to engage in their child's education (96 percent, 98 percent).

"In this technologically advanced and competitive world, a solid science education is vital to the future of our children," said Seigo Kashii, president and CEO of Astellas Pharma US.

Parents and teachers can play a key role in providing positive exposure to science when children are young. The hot jobs will follow if the students are prepared to do them. The future of life sciences depends on the fact that they will.

More New Technology Must Be Used to Steer Students to High-Tech Careers

AstraZeneca plans tech center in Russia, aims to use informatics to predict drug safety

AstraZeneca wants to invest in advanced software to help predict the safety and efficacy of drugs. The London-based drugmaker ($AZN) plans to open a "Predictive Science Centre" in St. Petersburg, part of a broader plan that will result in pumping more than $1.2 billion into the Russian economy over the next five years.

With a focus on predicting the risks and benefits of new medicines, the drug company plans to tap locals in Russia to develop the needed bioinformatics, data analysis capabilities, software and other tools for the center, the firm announced this morning. The company also plans to have 30 employees work at the center through a deal with the St. Petersburg government involving Russian companies and groups that will be announced later this week. In addition to the center, AstraZeneca started construction earlier this year of on a $150 million drug plant in the Kaluga region of Russia and has forged collaborations with research institutes in the country, where it now employs more than 1,000 people.

"Russia is a dynamic economy where our growing investments will help us to offer to patients AstraZeneca's portfolio of innovative medicines," AstraZeneca CEO David Brennan said, speaking in St. Petersburg. "We are pleased to contribute to the development of an innovative healthcare sector through our local research and manufacturing capabilities, established operations, and scientific and educational collaborations."

While the drugmaker's investment boosts its presence in a market of growing importance in the pharma game, AstraZeneca also appears to be placing a bet on computer systems to make its R&D more efficient. It's not alone. For instance, Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) and Biogen Idec ($BIIB) have been early adopters of supercomputing systems that can crunch molecular data to identify important predictive biomarkers of how well a drug will work in certain patients. And data analytics firms such as GNS Healthcare, Selventa, and TIBCO Spotfire have been working with developers on drug R&D projects like this for years.

COMPARATIVE GENOMICS

       

All creature beings or Homo Sapiensshare 99.8% of their genome sequence and single 0.2% of the sequence varies linking the uncommon those. The variations in party genomes are due to single nucleotides polymorphism or SNPs which can occur both in coding and non-coding regions of the genome. SNPs are genetic material sequence variations which occur as a single corrupt (A, C, G, or T) is altered so with the intention of uncommon those could be inflicted with uncommon calligraphy by these positions. These genomic variations determines the difference in our susceptibility to or protection from all kinds of diseases.

APPLICATIONS OF BIOINFORMATICS

        

The various kinds of analysis which can be made using Bioinformatics tools are the following:

A) Processing skinned in rank obtained from bench bring about made by researchers.

B) Tradition of genes using notebook programmes like GENEMARK pro prokaryotes and GENESCAN pro eukaryotes.

C) Predicting protein sequences using notebook programmes.

D) Identifying regulatory sequences such as enhancers and UAS using notebook programme.

E) Deriving phylogenetic relationships amongst uncommon organisms.

INFORMATION SOURCES AND MAJOR DATABASES

The National Centre of Biotechnology Information (NCBI) was produced by the National Institute of Health, USA in 1988 to develop in rank systems in molecular biology. It provides Gen Bank nucleic acid sequence list, data retrieval systems and computational assets pro the analysis of Gen Bank data. ENTREZ is NCBI’s search and retrieval logic with the intention of provides users with integrated access to sequencing, mapping, taxonomy and organize data. BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) is a curriculum pro sequence similarity searching and is furthermore used in identifying genes and genetic facial appearance.

Classification of the assets unfilled from NCBI

A) Database Retrieval tools like ENTREZ, TAXONOMY, BROWSER, LOCUS LINK. The taxonomy browser gives in rank in this area the taxonomic classification of various species. Locus link has in rank on the authoritative gene names and other descriptive in rank in this area genes.

B) BLAST family tree of sequence similarity search programmes.

C) Gene level sequences which has several tools like Unigene, Homologene, RefSeq and that. Homologene is a list of orthologs and homologs pro the creature, mouse, rat, zebra fish and cow genes represented in Unigene and Locus link. Refseq is a list of mRNAs and proteins of creature, mouse and rat which has helped in crafty gene chips and describing the sequence facial appearance of the creature genome.

D) Chromosomal sequences.

E) Genome analysis.

F) Analysis of gene face patterns.

G) Molecular organize.

All these mess based tools are unfilled emancipated.

ESTs

ESTs stands pro Expressed Sequence Tags. These comprise of partial cDNA clones i.E. CDNAs sequence from lone aim. It has its own special list called the dbEST. EST data can produce in rank regarding the face patterns by together with the Number of ESTs corresponding to all gene on bad terms by the whole digit of ESTs.

GSTs

GSTs stands pro Genomic Sequence Tags. Inside Plasmodium falciparum the enzyme Mung Bean nuclease (Mnase) cuts linking the genes. The digested genetic material can be used to arrange genomic store. The sequences can be read from either tops as in ESTs.

BIOINFORMATICS

           

Bioinformatics is an self-determining restraint which merges the meadow of molecular biology and notebook science. This primarily involves the transformation of biological polymers such as nucleic acids molecules and proteins into sequences of digital symbols. The symbols and their importance pro the protein sequences be inflicted with furthermore been generated.

Symbol definitions pro amino acids