Genomics
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Coronavirus punch

Cooperative research effort taking aim at genetics affecting COVID-19 infection

April 28, 2020
By Nuala Moran
LONDON – Leading genome sequencing groups are launching the first meta-analysis in the hunt for genetic factors that explain why some people have worse COVID-19 symptoms than others, after agreeing to share patient sequence data from around the world. The COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative (CHGI), set up by scientists at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), now includes 151 registered studies that are searching for genetic variation associated with severity and outcomes.
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Deal handshake with graphic overlay

Invitae acquires genomic startup Diploid, two other companies

March 11, 2020
By Meg Bryant
San Francisco-based Invitae Corp. is putting pedal to the metal in its quest to bring comprehensive genetic testing into mainstream clinical practice, reporting the acquisition of three companies – Diploid, Youscript Inc. and Genelex Labs LLC – following Tuesday’s market close. The total bill for the three deals comes to $195 million, $57 million of which is in cash.
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Cancer cell and DNA
Precision Medicine World Conference

Cancer genomic tests often aren’t done to guideline; germline data presents unique issues

Jan. 23, 2020
By Stacy Lawrence
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Just as it does with treatments, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) offers detailed guidelines on genomic testing by cancer type. These are key in determining what physicians can prescribe routinely and what insurers will cover. But those guidelines aren’t followed regularly outside a major research hospital setting, thereby obviating access to tumor genetic information that could help to better guide treatment. Even if current guidelines are followed, physicians and patients can get information back from the tests that neither party is prepared to process.
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Caris launches AI-based genomic profiling test to clarify cancer of unknown primary origin

Dec. 12, 2019
By Stacy Lawrence
Irving, Texas-based Caris Life Sciences Inc. has launched an AI-based genomic profiling test to better characterize cases of cancer of unknown primary origin (CUP) and atypical cases and offer appropriate treatment options. Known as the MI GPS (Genomic Profiling Similarity) Score, the analysis is based on an AI analysis of a 592-gene panel of all the clinically relevant genetic biomarkers for cancer.
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Sharing deeply of ourselves: Still messy

March 27, 2015
By Michael Fitzhugh
In the capital of digital sharing and over-sharing, Silicon Valley, contributing one’s whole genome to science in the name of fun and self-knowledge has never felt that controversial. Engineers share software code liberally every day on sites like GitHub and Bitbucket. Plenty of those same coders and their investors gleefully joined 23andMe spit parties back in the heady days before the Federal Trade Commission jumped in with a call to sanity. Silicon Valley is still over-sharing. Someone is literally live-streaming their walk from a train station to a bar on Twitter’s new Periscope app as I write. Superficially, it seems...
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