06-13-2008: Leaders of the 1000 Genomes Project announced that three firms that have pioneered development of new sequencing technologies have joined the international effort to build the most detailed map to date of human genetic variation as a tool for medical research. The new participants are: Applied Biosystems, an Applera Corporation business; 454 Life Sciences, a Roche company ; and Illumina Inc. in San Diego.
The 1000 Genomes Project, which was announced in January 2008, is an international research consortium that is creating a new map of the human genome that will provide a view of biomedically relevant DNA variations at a resolution unmatched by current resources. Organizations that have already committed major support to the project are: the Beijing Genomics Institute, Shenzhen, China; the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, U.K.; and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The NHGRI-supported work is being done by the institute's Large-Scale Sequencing Network, which includes the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston; the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Mass.; and the Washington University Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.
The 1000 Genomes Project builds upon the International HapMap Project, which produced a comprehensive catalog of human genetic variation - variation that is organized into neighborhoods called haplotypes. The HapMap catalog laid the foundation for the recent explosion of genome-wide association studies that have identified more than 130 genetic variants linked to a wide range of common diseases, including type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, prostate and breast cancers, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and a number of mental illnesses.
The HapMap catalog, however, only identifies genetic variants that are present at a frequency of 5 percent or greater. The catalog produced by the 1000 Genomes Project will map many more details of the human genome and how it varies among individuals, identifying genetic variants that are present at a frequency of 1 percent across most of the genome and down to 0.5 percent or lower within genes. The 1000 Genomes Project's high-resolution catalog will serve to accelerate many future studies of people with specific illnesses.
Corbett, QIAGEN, ltf Labortechnik GmbH & Co. KG, and Applied Biosystems, LLC, part of Life Technologies Corporation announced a settlement of their disputes concerning infringement by Corbett’s Rotor-Gene_TM Real-Time PCR-Cyclers and Applied Biosystems’ Real-Time Thermal Cycler Instrument ... more
Invitrogen Corporation and Applied Biosystems Inc. announced the successful completion of their merger transaction. The new company will be named Life Technologies Corporation and is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "LIFE" beginning November 24, 2008.
“Thi ... more
Drug toxicity is a leading cause of pre-clinical drug failures. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulatory organisations have called upon the pharmaceutical industry to develop more effective tools to help avoid these costly failures, reduce the number of failed compound ... more
Leaders of the 1000 Genomes Project announced that three firms that have pioneered development of new sequencing technologies have joined the international effort to build the most detailed map to date of human genetic variation as a tool for medical research. The new participants are: Appl ... more
Applera and BIOTECON Diagnostics (BCD) announced a non-exclusive, worldwide license agreement relating to PCR technology for Food Testing Applications and Genetically-Modified Organism (GMO) Testing Applications: BIOTECON Diagnostics has acquired important rights with the PCR licence.
In ... more
Lab21 announced that it has obtained a licence from Celera, an Applera Corporation business, to provide access to its test for cirrhosis risk in patients with chronic hepatitis C viral (HCV) infection in the UK and Ireland.
The test, known as CRS7, is the first clinical test capable of pre ... more
The deadly E. coli O104 strain that has killed dozens and hospitalized thousands across Europe has been sequenced using 454 Life Sciences’ benchtop GS Junior sequencing system to generate the “most accurate and detailed genetic analysis to date” of this particularly virulent strain. The seq ... more
454 Life Sciences, a Roche company, and Roche NimbleGen, both units of Roche Applied Science, have announced a collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company and SeqWright. The goal of this collaboration is to use genomic technologies to identify genetic variants possibly associated with various ... more
For many years, researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany have been studying polar and marine environments to improve our understanding of ocean-ice-atmosphere interactions and the animal and plant kingdoms of the Arctic and Anta ... more