Complete human diplotypes & Google X Life Sciences podcast

Theral Timpson produces a weekly podcast at Mendelspod.com, and in his latest edition he interviews me about Google X Life Sciences (I wrote about them before here), long-read sequencing (in particular Pacific Biosciences) which then I’m able to discuss the value of complete human diploid sequencing, and my involvement with […]

A few observations from Advances in Genome Biology and Technology 2

In the closing session of the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology meeting recently concluded in Marco Island, Florida, the main organizers Dr. Eric Green (National Human Genome Research Institute Director, Bethesda MD) and Dr. Elaine Mardis (Co-director with Rick Wilson of the Genome Institute of Washington University, St. Louis […]

Marketing Precision Medicine Pt2

After writing up ‘Marketing Precision Medicine’ it turned out that I spent so much time in giving the background and context, that I only was able to mention briefly the marketing challenge that the Precision Medicine Initiative brings. So here is Part 2, getting deeper into the Marketing challenge of […]

Marketing Precision Medicine

Last week I listened in with interest on the Precision Medicine Workshop held at the NIH, and wrote up some thoughts about the need for them to market it effectively. You can access this post on LinkedIn – something of an experiment in posting in various places. We are living […]

Commentary from Behind the Bench

Right about one calendar year ago I was asked to start writing for a new blog for the Genetic Analysis division of Thermo Fisher Scientific. Called ‘Behind the Bench’, it took a few months to get off the ground, and started posting right at the end of May 2014. A […]

The Core Competency of Google is not Life Sciences

What does Google X have to offer in life science diagnostic development? I’ve picked up a phrase, ‘it’s a narrow world’, from somewhere in my travels. Way back in my laboratory manager days in Santa Monica California at the John Wayne Cancer Institute (‘laboratory manager’ sounds so much better than […]

First Customer PhiX Data from the NextSeq 500 4

Illumina announced in January at the JP Morgan Healthcare conference the NextSeq 500, which was trumpeted (at least at the level of press releases and public relations) of being available immediately. Knowing first-hand how difficult it is to launch a new system, I had expected the first systems to ship […]

Going ‘Behind the Bench’ (a new blog)

First of all I’m announcing to the world a new Thermo Fisher Scientific / Life Technologies blog entitled ‘Behind the Bench’. I mentioned in the last post that this blog will launch May 27th, but due to some factors beyond my control we’ve gone ‘live’ with it today. (It may […]

Behind the Bench blog from Life Technologies

A new role, a new team and a new blog 3

“You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.” – Yogi Berra Two years ago when I started this blog I had a few goals – one was to educate and inform, another to build connections, and a third to […]

Dana Pe’er, Garry Noland and single-cell proteomics at AACR

During AACR a number of great sessions were presented at ‘meet the expert’ sessions at 7am in the morning. One benefit of coming out West from the East Coast is not being able to stay up past 10:30pm or so local time, and waking up on my own at 4:30am […]

Steven Rosenberg and T-Cell Immunotherapy for Cancer

As a person who worked at a melanoma research institute once upon a time (the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica California, by the way), it was a pleasure to hear Steven Rosenberg’s plenary talk at the AACR meeting in San Diego. A lot has happened since 1997. It […]