Wheat's Genetic Code Cracked

A team of UK researchers, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), has publicly released the first sequence coverage of the wheat genome. The release is a step towards a fully annotated genome and makes a significant contribution to efforts to support global food security and to increase the competitiveness of UK farming.

The genome sequences released comprise five read-throughs of a reference variety of wheat and give scientists and breeders access to 95% of all wheat genes. This is among the largest genome projects undertaken, and the rapid public release of the data is expected to accelerate significantly the use of the information by wheat breeding companies.

The team involved Prof Neil Hall and Dr Anthony Hall at the University of Liverpool, Prof Keith Edwards and Dr Gary Barker at the University of Bristol and Prof Mike Bevan at the John Innes Centre, a BBSRC-funded Institute.

The genome data released are in a 'raw' format, comprising sequence reads of the wheat genome in the form of letters representing the genetic 'code'. A complete copy of the genome requires further read-throughs, significant work on annotation and the assembly of the data into chromosomes. Large-scale, rapid sequencing programmes such as this have been made technically feasible by advanced technology genome sequencing platforms, including one based on BBSRC-funded research conducted in the UK in the 1990s.The majority of the sequencing work for this particular project was done using the 454 Life Science platform, developed in the US.

The sequence data can be used by scientists and plant breeders to develop new varieties through accelerated conventional breeding or other technologies.

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PhD POSITION @ TIFR

http://univ.tifr.res.in/gs2011/Files/Advertisement.pdf

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Roche Enters $1.1B Drug Deal With US's Aileron Therapeutics for New Stapled Peptide Therapeutics

Aileron Therapeutics and Roche announced today that they have entered into a collaboration to discover, develop and commercialise a new class of drugs called Stapled Peptide Therapeutics. As part of this agreement, Roche will work with Aileron to develop drug candidates against up to five undisclosed targets selected from Roche’s key therapeutic areas, which include oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS.

Stapled Peptide Therapeutics are a result of Aileron’s breakthrough peptide stabilization technology, and are a potential solution to drug as-yet intractable disease targets, including those originating from long sought-after intracellular protein-protein interactions.

Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will provide Aileron guaranteed funding of at least $25 million in technology access fees and R&D support. Aileron is eligible to receive up to $1.1 billion in payments upon the achievement of discovery, development, regulatory and commercialisation milestones, if drug candidates are developed against all five targets. In addition, Aileron will receive royalties on future sales for any marketed products that result from the collaboration. Aileron will have substantial responsibility in collaboration with Roche to develop drug candidates against the selected targets up to clinical development.


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Life Technologies to Acquire Ion Torrent for up to $725M

Life Technologies announced after the close of the market Tuesday that it will acquire sequencing technologies startup Ion Torrent Systems for $375 million in cash and stock.

The total value of the deal could rise by another $350 million if certain technical and time-based milestones are met through 2012.

Ion Torrent has developed the Personal Genome Machine, a benchtop instrument that is currently being used by early-access customers and will be launched later this year at an entry cost of less than $100,000. The system will be "optimal for mid-scale sequencing projects, such as targeted and microbial sequencing.

The transaction is expected to be dilutive by $.02 for Life Tech's earnings per share in 2010, and neutral to earnings in 2011. It is expected to be accretive in 2012 and beyond.

Life Tech said that its EPS guidance for FY 2010 remains unchanged at $3.35 to $3.50.

The firms expect to close the transaction in the fourth quarter of this year.

in early Wednesday trade on the Nasdaq, shares of Life Technologies were down 2 percent at $44.21.

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Position @ Sheba Cancer Research Center Israel

Courtesy Bioclues


The growing bioinformatics unit in the Cancer Research Center in Sheba medical center (Tel Hashomer) is looking for a PhD student and a bioinformatician (see attachments). The Cancer Research Center is equipped with state of the art technologies for high throughput data analysis, including Solexa sequencing machine. We also have the benefits of close access to clinical and diagnostics data. All making it a gold mine for bioinformaticans.

The bioinformatics unit in the Sheba cancer research cancer is seeking for a bioinformatican. The projects involve programming and usage of advanced bioinformatics tools and include analysis of deep sequencing data. Contact: 
eran.eyal@sheba.health.gov.il, 972- 03-5308148


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Position @ Strand LS, Scientific Writer, Marketing & Communications

Position Title:  Scientific Writer, Marketing & Communications

Reporting To:  Director Marketing and Communications

Business Area:  Marketing and Communications

Job Description: This position requires varied writing skills for interpreting diverse
scientific data into easily readable information, such as.

•    Developing written materials, including, content for the
websites, blogs, communities,  brochures, flyers, case studies,
whitepapers, newsletters, press releases, Q&A, presentations
and speeches, tech journals, etc. Proficiency in succinctly
writing “benefit-oriented” copy that breaks through and
strikes a chord with the reader.
•    Creating written communications for all corporate collateral
needs, including but not limited to tradeshow displays,
website, blogs, brochures and trade advertising,
•    Contributing actively to the concept, structure and contents of
corporate literature and online projects
•    Playing an active role in implementing global marketing
communications strategies, such as managing events,
exhibitions/conferences, campaigns, letter writing for
management team, editorial placement, press conferences and
internal employee communications
•    Project management during concept, text, and layout phases

Preferred Qualifications

•    Advanced degree in Bioinformatics or Biotehnology
(genomics, proteomics, sequencing, and bioinformatics);
Ph.D. preferred.
•    3-5 Years of writing scientific content and/or marketing
copy/Web content/; excellent writing and editing, with an
emphasis on scientific copy writing.  
•    Background in English, Journalism or Communications who
has worked in a bio scientific or biomedical organization.
•    Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite is must. Designing
skills and knowledge of good design elements, preferred.
•    Must be able to professionally interact with all levels of
employees.
•    Must have outstanding relationship and communication
skills. Juggling multiple assignments and multiple drafts is
an essential part of the job.
•    High energy, self driven individual, with passion to work on
creating world class material and an attitude of ‘ we go to
them’ rather than ‘they come to us’.

Contact : Shyam Suryanarayanan shyam@cdrivecareers.com


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Bioinformatics education in India

An account of bioinformatics education in India is presented along with future prospects. Establishment of BTIS network by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India in the 1980s had been a systematic effort in the development of bioinformatics infrastructure in India to provide services to scientific community. Advances in the field of bioinformatics underpinned the need for well-trained professionals with skills in information technology and biotechnology. As a result, programmes for capacity building in terms of human resource development were initiated. Educational programmes gradually evolved from the organisation of short-term workshops to the institution of formal diploma/degree programmes. A case study of the Master’s degree course offered at the Bioinformatics Centre, University of Pune is discussed. Currently, many universities and institutes are offering bioinformatics courses at different levels with variations in the course contents and degree of detailing. BioInformaticsNational Certification (BINC) examination initiated in 2005 by DBT provides a common yardstick to assess the knowledge and skill sets of students passing out of various institutions. The potential for broadening the scope of bioinformaticsto transform it into a data intensive discovery discipline is discussed. This necessitates introduction of amendments in the existing curricula to accommodate the upcoming developments. Bioinformatics education in India

Abstract 

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Protein Structure and Drug Discovery Workshop

"Protein Structure and Drug Discovery" Workshop – Sept 30th to Oct 1st 2010 La Jolla, CA.

Please join us at MolSoft's ( www.molsoft.com ) "Protein Structure and Drug Design" Workshop in La Jolla, California USA. For more information and a registration form see: www.molsoft.com/training.html

This workshop is suitable for chemists and biologists who would like to learn more about computational drug discovery and bioinformatics. No prior knowledge in this field is required to participate. The workshop is presented by Prof. Ruben Abagyan (University of California San Diego) and Dr. Maxim Totrov (MolSoft).

Price: $349 (Academics) $749 (Commercial)

The workshops will consist of lectures, demonstrations, and "hands-on" computational experiments and will cover the following topics:

- How To Display Fully Interactive 3D Molecules in PowerPoint and the Web
- Sequence and Protein Structure Analysis
- Protein Modeling and Simulations
- Structure Validation and Optimization
- Ligand Binding Site Prediction
- Small Molecule Docking and Virtual Ligand Screening
- Structure-based development of target-specific compound libraries
- Cheminformatics, Chemical Clustering, Searching, Superposition etc...
- QSAR, Machine Learning
- Protein-Protein Docking

Please see our website at www.molsoft.com for more details or E mail: andy@molsoft.com or call 858-625-2000 ext.108.  For the latest MolSoft news see: http://www.molsoft.com/news.html

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Post-doc@Harvard Medical School

Organization: 

Harvard Medical School

Job Location: 

Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Salary: 

$50,000/year

Benefits: 

Family health insurance, T-Pass discount, credit union, child-care scholarships

Job Description: 

Post-doctoral position.Available immediately. Permanent residency not required. Working at the interface of biology, statistics, and computing, the candidate will analyze high through-put gene expression microarray data in cancer genomics. The goal is to develop novel data analysis algorithms and software and to identify genomic signatures in cancer patients and tumor-bearing mice.

Requirements: 

Qualifications:
(i) PhD in bioinformatics, biostatistics, computer science or related fields; (ii)familiarity with molecular biology and genomics; (iii)strong programming skills (R, C++, Python): and (iv) proficiency in microarray software Bioconductor, dChip, and GenePattern.

Contact Information: 

Please send CV, a career statement, and three letters of reference to Dr. A. I. Kassis, HMS, Armenise Bldg D-137, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston MA 02115; email:Amin_Kassis@hms.harvard.edu.

About Our Organization: 

An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

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National Seminar on "Computational Biology"

National Seminar on
"Computational Biology"
September 15-17, 2010.

The 3-day seminar will focus on current topics in bioinformatics. Experts in various areas will deliver lectures and conduct demo-sessions. The seminar will be very useful to the faculty and students interested in Bioinformatics. Limited Lab sessions will be provided for 2 days. http://reg.bicpu.edu.in/


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EBI–Sanger Postdoctoral (ESPOD) Programme

Two ESPOD fellowships available in 2010

The EBI and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute share the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus. This proximity fosters close collaborations and contributes to an international and vibrant campus environment. Researchers are supported by easy access to scientific expertise, well-equipped facilities and an active seminar programme.

The EBI–Sanger Postdoctoral (ESPOD) Programme builds on the strong collaborative relationship between the two institutes, offering projects which combine experimental (wet lab) and computational approaches. Projects may be selected from the areas defined below or proposed by the applicant. In the case of self-defined projects, the area of work must have been agreed with both the EBI- and Sanger-based group leaders. Two postdoctoral fellowships will be awarded in 2010, to start as soon as possible after October 2010 but within 12 months of the fellowship being awarded.

Available projects

Birney/Semple: Integrated high resolution phenotyping and genetics in the zebrafish

Flicek/Hurles: Functional genomic analysis of structural variations in the human genome

Le Novere/Grant: Inference and representation of post-synaptic protein pathways using proteomic and phenotypic data

Luscombe/Bilker: Identification of regulatory networks that control development in a malaria parasite

Luscombe/Dougan: Genome-scale investigation of pathogenic regulatory networks in Salmonella

Overington/Rayner: Target discovery and validation for novel malaria drugs using an integrated chemical biology approach

The full directory of EBI group leaders can be found here and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Faculty page lists the academic faculty members.

Application and selection dates:
Application deadline: 15 August 2010. 

Applications should consist of:
(a) cover letter specifying the project the candidate wished to apply for;
(b) CV with two references;
(c) project proposal if the candidate opts to propose a project themselves (please note that this is not required if a project is selected from the list of available projects). Self-proposed projects should be described in a maximum of 1000 words and must be pre-approved by the group and team leaders involved before the application is submitted.

Applications should be submitted via email to Tracey Andrew, by 15 August at the latest.

Interviews and selection process will take place from mid-September to mid-October 2010. Interviews will include one-to-one discussion with the group leaders associated with the project of interest and also a panelinterview.

Fellowships are expected to start from mid-October 2010. Fellowship start dates can be delayed in agreement with the project leaders but must be undertaken within 12 months of the fellowship being awarded.

Benefits of working at EMBL-EBI

EMBL is an inclusive, equal opportunity employer offering attractive conditions and benefits appropriate to an international research organisation. In addition to a competitive salary, EMBL offers additional allowances dependent on family circumstances as well as an optional healthcare scheme for fellows and their families (spouse and children). Please see our leaflet about working at EMBL-EBI.

Contact:

For questions on ESPOD projects, please contact the group leader in question (for individual projects) orTracey Andrew for general enquiries on how to apply. 



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CambridgeSoft's Business Partner in Hyderabad, India is hiring for multiple positions

CambridgeSoft's Business Partner in Hyderabad, India is hiring for multiple positions. Appropriate candidates, with a chemistry or biochemistry background, could apply.

The following is a list of available positions:

• Lead Developer - ChemDraw product on a Java platform (Hyderabad, India)
• Developer - JAVA DEVELOPERS (Hyderabad, India)
• Lead Developer - Desktop - ChemBio3D (Hyderabad, India)
• Developer - Enterprise - Network Communication and Distributed Computing (Hyderabad, India)
• Developer - Desktop - User Interface (Hyderabad, India)
• Developer - Desktop - Numerical Methods (Hyderabad, India)
• Lead Developer - Enterprise - Inventory (Hyderabad, India)
• Lead Developer - Enterprise (Hyderabad, India)
• Developer - Enterprise - (C++) (Hyderabad India)
• Developer - Enterprise - E-Notebook Support Analyst (Hyderabad, India)
• Developer - Desktop - ChemDraw (Hyderabad, India)
• Lead Developer - Enterprise - E-Notebook (Hyderabad, India)
• Developer - Enterprise - Database Specialist (Hyderabad, India)
• Developer - Desktop - Core Chemistry Team (Hyderabad, India)
• Developer - Desktop - Chemical Database (Hyderabad, India)

All positions in Hyderabad, India are full time with our business partner. Details can be found online at:
http://www.cambridgesoft.com/careers/?category=&country=89 

Position Type: Full Time
Location: Hyderabad, India
To submit resumes via email, please email careers@cambridgesoft.com. Please be sure to include the Job Code in the subject line. 

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The 4th Virtual Training Workshop on Bioinformatics

The 4th Virtual Training Workshop on Bioinformatics will be held on September-October, 2010, which is organized by Asian Bioinformatics Research and Education Network (ABREN). You are welcome to join the workshop. It covers more useful lectures on bioinformatics. The registration procedure is simple. Just you click the link which attached bellow. They will enable the accounts and send you e-mail with the account information, just before the workshop starts. 

Workshop and registration site: http://www.abren.net/workshop/

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Java Developer - Bioinformatics

Job Title: Java Developer - Bioinformatics
Salary: 35000-45000 Per Annum Excellent benefits
Location: Surrey
Description: Java Developer, Permanent, Guildford, £35-45k + excellent benefits and package


Is a leading software solutions company for the pharmaceutical industry. A new opportunity has become available for a Java Developer with Bioinformatics to join a dedicated team to help develop software solutions to accelerate the drug discovery process.

Key responsibilities include: Designing and implementing new products; maintenance work on existing products; mentoring other developers; helping to evangelize technology and component use throughout the company.

The successful candidate will be a Java developer with a strong understanding of Bioinformatics. The ideal candidate will also have a working knowledge of J2EE/ JBOSS, Java Swing, JavaScript libraries and SQL but this is a nice to have.

Please contact Tom Hildreth for immediate consideration and full company details. No terminology in this advert is intended to discriminate on the grounds of age, and we confirm that we will gladly accept applications from persons of any age for this role. TRG provides services as an agency and an employment business.


Click here to view and apply for this job online 


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