NEWS

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarding Genomic Innovator Awards to nine institutions to support the research of 12 early career scientists in the field of genomics. The awards total up to $27 million over five years, subject to the availability of funds. The Genomic Innovator … Read more

An international commission of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the U.K.’s Royal Society has published a report suggesting human embryos whose genomes have been edited should not be used to create a pregnancy until it is established that precise genomic changes can be made reliably without introducing undesired … Read more

The Department of Defense’s (DOD) Defense Innovation Unit is bringing together the best of commercially available artificial intelligence (AI) technology and the DOD’s vast cache of archived medical data to teach computers how to identify cancers and other medical irregularities. The result will be new tools medical professionals can use to more accurately and more … Read more

Genome editing, also called gene editing, is a cluster of technologies allowing scientists the ability to change an organism’s DNA. The technologies around gene editing allow genetic material to be added, removed, or altered at particular locations in the genome. Several approaches to genome editing have been developed. A recent one is known as CRISPR-Cas9, … Read more

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has a keen interest in developments in the field of synthetic biology. Defense Applications & Opportunities The DoD started focusing on synthetic biology in 2013. Since then, its capabilities have grown substantially. The following represents the foundational plans DoD developed in 2013 when the field was just emerging, as … Read more

Gene therapy is the administration of genetic material to modify or manipulate the expression of a gene product or to alter the biological properties of living cells for therapeutic use. Gene therapies offer the potential to treat diseases or conditions for which no or few treatments exist. They are being studied to treat cancer as … Read more

Intrexon offered its common equity shares to the public in 2013 making it the first pure synthetic biology company to IPO. I wrote about the company in 2014. In its IPO disclosures, Intrexon said, “We believe we are the first company focused exclusively on applying synthetic biology across a broad spectrum of end markets and … Read more

An image on the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s History Wall in its Alexandria, Virginia, headquarters memorializes the agency’s first grants. NSF’s very first grant, for $10,300, was in the biological sciences and went to the Institute for Cancer Research. In writing his prescription in 1945 for a new agency devoted to the progress of science, … Read more

Synthetic Genomics Inc (SGI) is a private company based in La Jolla, California that develops genomic-driven solutions to address global energy and environmental challenges. The company started synthesizing and programing DNA in 2005, long before CRISPR technology greatly improved gene editing techniques. In some ways, the company’s activities appear to be like a sandpit for … Read more

Last month, Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp. (Nasdaq: ADPT) launched ImmuneCODE with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) to begin sharing one of the largest, most detailed views of the immune response to COVID-19 in real time based on de-identified data generated from thousands of COVID-19 blood samples from patients around the globe. The open database contains detailed information … Read more