Aging-centric genetic health database in California: 100k people, ~65yrs, 700k SNPs, telomeres too

Kaiser Permanente alongside with UCSF plans for genetic analyses of an unprecedented 100,000 older Californians, the Technology Review writes in Massive Gene Database Planned in California The effort will make use of existing saliva samples taken from California patients, whose average age is 65. Their DNA will be analyzed for 700,000 genetic variations called single-nucleotide…

Sage Bionetworks Update: building an OA standard for human disease biology

Sage Bionetworks is a not-for-profit organization developing an open-access “pre-competitive” platform for networked and annotated models of human disease. It’s a huge and unparalleled bioinformatics enterprise: starting with an anonymous $5 million donation and soon making high throughput, large-scale human and mouse biological data (largely from Merck) available in the range that’s already in the…

Bright cells, big city: Cellular images hit Broadway

Surprise email from Conor McKechnie, GE Healthcare proving the aesthetics of science and the value of blogging: A while (!) back you posted an inspiring piece linking to Harvard’s BioVisions inner life of the cell – it was 2006…It got me thinking that we could do something similarly inspiring with actual cellular images entered into…

Many Eyes Visualizations: FDA Application Approvals 2000-2008

Take a look at the FDA Application Approvals 2000-2008 visualization (created by user mktlgcs) over at IBM’s Many Eyes to get an aerial view on the US. pharmaceutical industry.

ScienceX2 is dead, long live Signtific!

The folks at The Institute for the Future have been busy lately and as a result Signtific has been launched replacing ScienceX2! Check this, the about and FAQ pages if it’s new to you or just simply explore.

Make it really simple: animated human prehistory for 23andMe users

New 23andMe website animation on human prehistory made by Ariana Killoran. Ariana created all the Genetics 101 films for 23andMe and the narrator was her pa. With these films the company clearly sets a new standard in popular scientific animations and videos. Homo Erectus: Neanderthal:

Who’s first? Happy First Birthday, commercial personal genomics!

What do you think, which company launched the first commercial and comprehensive personal genome service (based on a genome-wide SNP scan) on the market and exactly when? We have 2 candidates here in the ring deCODE Genetics (founded in 1996, Iceland) and 23andMe (founded in 2006, USA), the Amundsen and Scott of personal genomics. (please…

Golden day for 23andMe: Time’s 2008 Invention of the Year

This is a golden day for 23andMe despite all crisis worries: Mountain View, CA (PRWEB) October 30, 2008 — TIME Magazine announced today that the Personal Genome Service™ from 23andMe, Inc. has been named 2008’s Invention of the Year. 23andMe was chosen as the year’s most significant invention for its exceptional work in making personal…

My body is my thesis: The 2009 AAAS Science Dance Contest

The 2009 AAAS Science Dance Contest is for hidden artists disguised as scientists, nerds and shameless self promoters who are tempted to dance their PhDs, upload it to YouTube and enjoy microcelebrity. A real thesis live, non-profit but for fun and a one and only chance to make a fool out of you. This is…

23andMe on Twitter & now offering services in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Israel

Finally 23andMe, my first personal genetics service provider, is on Twitter which could mean that from now on first-hand company information will flow even more continuously compared to what the regularly/daily updated eminent corporate blog can offer. Microblogging is always quicker blogging! Based on the first 4 tweets (on the photo) the guys will not…

Mountain View – Budapest: 20 days to get my 23andMe profile!

I ordered my first commercial genetic profile from 23andMe on the 9th of September online, FedExed my 2 ml saliva from Budapest to 23andMe, Mountain View on the 12th of September. I got the results today. That said within 3 weeks since the birth of the idea I purchased more than 500 000 SNPs of…

Even ugly handwriting can fit the informal nature of SciFoo

I had problems with my handwriting since elementary schools, or at least my teachers had continuous problems with it. Even during my university years I was asked sometimes to read out loud my essays, papers to them otherwise risking bad grades. Maybe it’s because I am a hidden right-handed using my left hand for writing…

Superstruct launches with Superthreats, a forecasting game for the masses!

If you are particularly fascinated by the future and enjoy playing games the following is something you should be involved and interested in. Superstruct, the world’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game started today with Superthreat scenarios by 2019. Game founder Jane McGonigal writes in a message sent to the members of Facebook Group the dedicated…

Sergey Brin, Gly2019Ser & a real chance against Parkinson disease/aging!

It was already known that amongst the Google top people Sergey Brin is the one who is most interested in pushing biotechnology and the biomedical sciences: in his Stanford years he was interested in biology courses according to The Google Story, he married Anne Wojcicki (who graduted from biology at Yale), Google invested $4.4 million…

My personalized genetics: 2 ml saliva FedExed to 23andMe!

As the second operation of building my genetically well informed future yesterday (2 days after completing the order) I collected 2 ml of my saliva with the help of 23andMe’s Oragene DNA self-collection kit manufactured by DNA Genotek. First operation has been the sequencing of the D-loop of my mitochondrial DNA out of 5 ml…

Just ordered my 23andMe kit for $399+shipping!

It was time for me to enter personally into the age of commercialized-personalized genetics/genomics and not just to talk about it! New price, new customers! Here is my suggestion to the sales department of 23andMe! 23andMe Democratizes Personal Genomics With New Analytical Platform

Google’s Chrome browser launches & loves tabs & users

Google Chrome Google on Google Chrome – comic book My time with Chrome on the Windows partition of my old MacBook mirrored in Twitter, echoed by FriendFeed:

Sci Foo Camp 2008: words and recommendations

SciFoo Camp is over for about 2 weeks now and I hope I’ll have time to write about it later. Here is what happened to me during the check-in process. 5 words or phrases that describe your interests and expertise: robust life extension, bioDIY, mitochondria, stem cells, Coen Brothers 3 people we should invite to…

Leaving New Orleans: freebies from me

Ok, I am officially done with New Orleans and moved to the Bay Area for the next couple of days to come, BioBarCamp and SciFoo Camp. On the photo some things I left behind and contributed with them to the culture of this special city.

Do you want a startuppy job: ask CoNotes or not!

Andrew Chen, founder of CoNotes said that to my mailbox: “I’m basically trying to solve the problem that startups have in hiring the right people. A lot of it has to do with marketing (it’s hard for startups to get prominence over big named companies particularly in university settings), but also fit.“ And that is…

BioBarCamp: we have room for 55 plus Campers!

BioBarCamp is due in circa 3 weeks and we have now 45 BioBarCampers signed up on the list of attendees and our host the Institute For The Future has the capacity for around 55 more campers, roughly for 100 people in general. We already have a very valuable mix: researchers, biologists (grad, postdoc, PI), coders-engineers-bioinformaticians,…

Life extension people & session at SciFoo 2008, Googleplex!

Last year I was probably the only SciFoo Camper with an explicit life extension commitment. I suggested & held a session which was related a bit to partial immortalization but was rather about the systems biology perspective in general, illustrated with some examples. So throughout the terrific SciFoo Camp 2007 life extension as a conversation…

The decellularized matrix hack: skipping many steps in tissue engineering

The concept of decellularizing complex organs in cadavers and reseeding the remaining matrix structure with differentiated, stem or progenitor cells, growing in a bioreactor and transplanting back to the organism could turn out to be a real technological shortcut in the field of tissue engineering. It is not a brand new story on the web,…

Understanding Aging Conference is over but it is the end of the beginning

I try to cover some interesting, sciencey points on the conference in later posts, right now just a brief, subjective human- and strategy focused summary: Congrats to Aubrey de Grey and the team, everything went well and if finally a worldwide consensus is around the corner claiming that robust healthy lifespan extension is technologically possible…

Aubrey de Grey on Aging 2008, the disease, the cure and the implications

This is how my Macbook saw Aubrey de Grey’s talk exactly 1 week ago on the AGING preconference at UCLA.

Halcyon Molecular: whole genome sequencing well under $1000?

Halcyon Molecular is a quite ambitious startup,  don’t you think? What we do: Halcyon Molecular is developing an ultra-low-cost DNA sequencing technology. Our single molecule approach does not require PCR amplification and will allow for megabase read lengths with simultaneous determination of methylation pattern. We aim to sequence entire human genomes de novo for well…

Mason-Dixon line in the lab

Mason-Dixon line Left side: QIAamp DNA Mini Kit for 250 DNA preps ($556.00) for purification of genomic, mitochondrial, bacterial, parasite, or viral DNA Right side: RNeasy Mini Kit (50) for purification of up to 100 ug total RNA from animal cells or tissues, yeast, or bacteria ($227.00)

Petabyte Age Wiredesque lesson on what science can learn from Google

I argued many times here that biology based biotechnology is the next information technology but in order to do so, biotech should harness good IT patterns and mimic its massive computing practices to handle the enormous amount of constantly accumulating data. Often this trend could be summarized in a simple way: keep your eye on…

Compare scientific websites with a new Google Trends layer!

I always had the feeling that the Natureplex (the web division of the Nature Publishing Group headed by Timo Hannay) is ahead of most scientific journal publishing conglomerate’s similar departments. Now with the help of a new Google Trends layer that compares websites in terms of traffic this impression was confirmed again without strict numbers.…

UCSF Memory & Aging Center channel on YouTube & ‘Fight for Mike’

Even tech people in Silicon Valley need to join their powerful forces and sources when it is about aging related neurodegenerative diseases and help research and the clinic. UCSF Memory and Aging Center channel on YouTube  Om Malik: A Personal Note: Pause & Read via John Battelle  

Innovation stop: “All they’ve done is created an extra billing event for the doctor”

It’s my first real encounter with a situation in which the officials of the state of California are clearly against innovation for financial reasons obvious enough (is enough): Wired Science, Alexis Madrigal, upcoming BioBarCamper: Exclusive: DNA Tester Reveals Cease-and-Desist Letter Wired.com has obtained a copy of the cease-and-desist letter sent to Navigenics by the state…

Future stop: California health officials against personal genetics risk-takers

It’s official: The California Department of Public Health wants practicing physicians (many of them prehistorically, sorry, traditionally trained) to be the patres familias in issues between personal genetic test takers and direct-to-consumer personal genetic testing start-ups while declining the test takers’ right to get familiar with their own genetic makeup and risks by their own.…

Understanding Aging Conference on FriendFeed!

The “Understanding Aging: Biomedical and Bioengineering Approaches” conference will be held from June 27-29, 2008 at UCLA organized by Aubrey de Grey, Irina Conboy and Amy Wagers. I like to call it UndertsEnding Aging in myself and I am excited to go to LA and meet new people also people from SENS3. Yesterday I created…

Patent Board science strength of biotech firms in WSJ

The Wall Street Journal Patent Board Biotechnology Scorecard was published this week in which biotech companies & private research firms are grouped by their Patent Board science strength ranking “which is based on the scale, quality, impact, and nearness to core science of a company’s patent-based intellectual property”. What I found interesting at the first…

Help Craig Newmark find a new hobby on Twitter!

Internet celebrities are not celebrities in a sense that you can easily communicate with them on services like Twitter (assuming the services are not down). There’s no such thing as an internet bodyguard except some firewalls in Windows. So this day I found Craig Newmark, Craigslist founder tweeting this: I suggested him a forward looking…

CT and PET body scans on the iPhone by MIMvista at WWDC

MIMvista Corp. is a third party software provider for PET and PET/CT display. Go SciPhone, go! source: Gizmodo Live Coverage

The Sergey, Larry, Eric test by Anne & Linda: 23andMe at home

“We really think that we can change Health Care…I want to change it in 5 years…it has to change and that’s we all are about” – says Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe co-founder, in the Google Tech Talk on Googling the Googlers’ DNA: A Demonstration of the 23andMe Personal Genome Service. Also a good presentation by Linda…

BioBarCamp: August 6-7, The Institute for the Future, Palo Alto

When I wrote about BioBarCamp for the first time, it was just an idea to organize an unconference for biogeeks, people interested in life scientists around SciFoo Camp time. Now thanks to Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, Science X2 project leader, we have a date and a venue: August 6-7, The Institute for the Future, 124 University…

What path would you follow: Shumway or Barnard?

Monya Baker has an excellent Q&A with the authors of the recent Nature Insight: Regenerative Medicine over at The Niche blog. Ken Chien, the author of Regenerative medicine and human models of human disease – see earlier post – recalls the paradigmatic story of heart transplantation and the 2 main surgeons behind, Norman Shumway and…

23andWe follows 23andMe: First generation of Consumer-Enabled Research

Consumer-Enabled Research, the second goal of pioneering personalized genetics company 23andMe, reached its first generation with the launch of 23andWe. From BusinessWire: “23andWe marks a new approach to genetics research. By directly involving 23andMe customers in the company’s research projects, the goal is to conduct large-scale studies powered by a web-based community of diverse individuals…