Biomarker Bulletin: January 30, 2012

January 30, 2012 | by

Biomarker Bulletin is an occasionally recurring update of news focused on biomarkers aggregated at BiomarkerCommons.org. Biomarkers are physical, functional or biochemical indicators of normal physiological or disease processes. The individualization of disease management — personalized medicine — is dependent on developing biomarkers that promote specific clinical domains, including early detection, risk, diagnosis, prognosis and predicted response to therapy.

Biomarker Commons

NLMplus, Semantics for Better Results in Search and Discovery

December 12, 2011 | by

WebLib, a small international technology startup of experts in information retrieval, natural language processing and medical informatics, recently released NLMplus, a semantic search and knowledge discovery application that utilizes a variety of semantic resources and natural language processing tools to produce improved search results from the vast collection of biomedical data and services of the National Library of Medicine (NLM).

NLMplus

The GE Healthymagination Initiative Against Cancer

November 18, 2011 | by

In September, GE and leading healthcare and financial partners launched a new healthymagination initiative focused on accelerating cancer innovation and improving care for 10 million cancer patients around the world by 2020 [1]. The plan was announced in New York by GE’s CEO and Chairman Jeff Immelt to an audience of prominent cancer scientists and researchers, doctors, financial partners and employees of GE Healthcare. The company’s comprehensive initiative combines the strength of GE’s portfolio of integrated cancer technologies with collaboration between GE and new partners and data sources to help clinicians provide better, more personalized care.

GE accelerates cancer fight

NIH, DoD Partner to Build Traumatic Brain Injury Database

September 1, 2011 | by

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has partnered with the Department of Defense (DoD) to build a central database on traumatic brain injuries. Funded at $10 million over four years, the Federal Interagency Traumatic Brain Injury Research (FITBIR) database is designed to accelerate comparative effectiveness research on brain injury treatment and diagnosis. It will serve as a central repository for new data, link to current databases and allow valid comparison of results across studies.

Brain injury

Biomarker Bulletin: July 5, 2011

July 5, 2011 | by

Biomarker Bulletin is an occasionally recurring update of news focused on biomarkers aggregated at BiomarkerCommons.org. Biomarkers are physical, functional or biochemical indicators of normal physiological or disease processes. The individualization of disease management — personalized medicine — is dependent on developing biomarkers that promote specific clinical domains, including early detection, risk, diagnosis, prognosis and predicted response to therapy.

Biomarker Commons

  • TCGA Study Brings Ovarian Cancer Patients Closer to Personalized Medicine

    In the June 30 issue of Nature, researchers from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network provide a large-scale integrative report on genetic mutations and pathways that distinguish the most common and aggressive type of ovarian cancer from other types of ovarian cancer as well as from other solid tumors. The disease is not defined by one or few cancer-driving genes but rather numerous mutations that individually occur in only a small number of cases. Given the degree of genomic disarray, the study results suggest that genomic structural variation is the driver of ovarian cancer. The findings may be helpful in guiding physicians to choose experimental treatments that are most likely to target molecular alterations effectively in patients with high-grade serous ovarian adenocarcinoma.

  • BGI Expanding Proteomics Services to Include Mass Spectrometry

    Earlier this month, Adam Bonislawski at GenomeWeb’s Proteomonitor reported that China-based BGI intends to expand its proteomics offerings and buy ~50 new mass spectrometers over the next two years. This diversification into clinical and drug-development services is a forward-thinking move for the genomics/bioinformatics giant and one that should be taken seriously by current proteomics service providers.

  • DHMRI Establishes Immune Monitoring Laboratory for Biomarker Discovery and Development

    Last week, the David H. Murdock Research Institute (DHMRI) announced that it acquired the Immune Tolerance Institute, Inc. (ITI) as a next step in its continued growth. The DHMRI provides integrated, state-of-the-art genomic, cellular, proteomic and bioinformatics technology platforms as a major resource for a range of academic and industry partners undertaking both preclinical and clinical research.

  • NINDS to Fund Biomarker Clinical Study for Spinal Muscular Atrophy

    Earlier this month, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) announced a funding opportunity and invited applications for a study of candidate biomarkers in Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). The goals of the SMA biomarker validation study are to: (1) evaluate biomarkers and clinical outcomes longitudinally across a spectrum of SMA cases; (2) establish a clinical outcomes and biomarker database; and (3) contribute samples to the NINDS biorepository at the Coriell Institute for Medical Research to capture and share methods and pre-competitive data.

  • SciClips Launches Biomarker and Drug Discovery Protocols Database

    SciClips is an open innovation platform that enables scientists and researchers to collaborate and share research and ideas. Following up on a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker database released earlier this year, SciClips has launched a second database constisting of biomarker and drug discovery research protocols.