Scientists to sequence genomes of hundreds of newborns
Hundreds of American babies will be pioneers in genomic medicine through a program that will award $25 million to researchers to sequence the babies’ genomes soon after they are born. Read more
University of California adopts open-access publishing policy
The faculty of the University of California, the largest public research university in the world, have adopted an open access policy in which they commit to make their research articles freely available to the public. Read more
Genome assembly contest prompts soul-searching
Bioinformaticians today publish a mammoth evaluation of genome assemblers – computer programs that aim to piece together short DNA sequence reads into complete genomes. Read more
MD Anderson faculty express frustration with leadership
Ron DePinho, the president of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, is under fire, after an internal survey found frustration among the institution’s faculty over its leadership and direction. Read more
US bioethicists recommend more tests before child anthrax vaccine trials
Bioethicists proposed limits today on the types of clinical trials of anthrax vaccine and other drugs and vaccines aimed at bioterror agents that can be conducted in children. Read more
Tobacco-tax proponents concede defeat
A California ballot measure that would have added a $1 tax to the price of each pack of cigarettes sold in the state was narrowly defeated, its opponents conceded on 22 June. The measure would have funded a $500 million research enterprise as well as smoking cessation and prevention efforts. Though the vote on the measure took place on 5 June, state officials took weeks to count a large number of mail-in and provisional ballots on Proposition 29, which ended up losing by less than 1 percentage point. Read more
Californians vote down cancer-research fund — or do they?
By a margin of less than 1%, California voters yesterday appear to have nixed a ballot measure that would make the state one of the world’s largest supporters of cancer research. But with proponents of the measure arguing that hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots have yet to be counted — many more than the 63,000-vote difference currently separating the yes and no sides — the contest may not yet be over. Read more
Texas resignation puts peer review under microscope
In the wake of the resignation of its Nobel Prize-winning scientific leader, the$3 billion Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) is defending the integrity of its grant-making process. Read more
Officials investigate San Francisco lab worker death
Officials are studying how a lab worker died from a Neisseria meningitidis infection that he apparently contracted while researching the bacterium at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Read more
US cancer-genome repository hopes to speed research
The University of California Santa Cruz has opened a $10.3 million cancer genomics hub (CGHub) that will store and make available all the data from the three major U.S. cancer sequencing projects, including The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Read more