OPENING - Manager or a Senior Bioinformatician

A manager or a senior bioinformatician is required.

Qualifications:- A Master degree in biology, bioinformatics
(or a related discipline), or equivalent experience in bioinformatics
in the pharmaceutical or biotech industry. 
An MS or Ph.D. is strongly preferred.

Required Skills:-Strong technical, analytical, and problem 
solving skills, Strong communication abilities, A dedication
to software development best practices and methodologies

Experience: - 2+ years experience developing software solutions
in the pharmaceutical R&D or biotech sector, Demonstrated
ability with several of the following: Java, Java/J2EE, 
.NET (VB, C#, ASP), Sharepoint, Oracle, JDBC, SQL, 
Unix/Linux, Windows, Mastery of at least one programming
language/platform.

Company:- MNC Bioinformatics.

Location:- Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune.

Salary:- 15-20 lacks.

Further relevant information can be accessed from the given website:-

http://www.bixee.com/manager-bioinformatics-sr--jobs-at-mnc-bioinformatics-7243.html/

Positions open:PhD & Postdoc positions, Systems Biology, Finland

The Computational Systems Biology group led by Harri Lähdesmäki in the
Department of Information and Computer Science at Aalto University School of
Science and Technology (formerly Helsinki University of Technology) uses
computational and statistical modeling techniques to study molecular
regulatory mechanisms and biomolecular networks, and their role in health
and disease. We have interest in statistics, computational science and
molecular biology, and how modern computational methods can be applied to
experimental data to understand biological systems.

1.  Post-doc/Ph.D. studentship in computational systems biology
2.  Ph.D. studentship in computational systems biology
3.  Ph.D. studentship in statistical modeling and machine learning for next-generation sequencing data in systems biology
4.  Part-time research assistant (MSc student level) in bioinformatics/computational systems biology

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International Conference & Exhibition on Proteomics & Bioinformatics

OMICS Publishing Group invites you to attend the International Conference & Exhibition on Proteomics & Bioinformatics which is going to be held onJanuary 27-29, 2011 in Hyderabad, India. We welcome all the participants from across the globe to take part in this event.

International Conference & Exhibition on Proteomics & Bioinformatics will schedule and coordinate all meetings with our U.S and Indian organizers and representatives. International Conference & Exhibition on Proteomics & Bioinformatics will serve as a catalyst for the advancement of Proteomics & Bioinformatics by connecting scientists within and across disciplines at conferences and exhibitions held at venues that create an environment conducive to information exchange, generation of new ideas and acceleration of applications that benefit society.

The previous conference has played a leading role in facilitating interaction between researchers in Proteomics & Bioinformatics area. The 2011 meeting will continue this tradition of fostering cross-fertilization among different communities and contributing to an integrative approach to Proteomics & Bioinformaticsacross all scales of observation. The 2011 meeting will feature a scientific programme of comprehensive talks, special sessions and oral & poster presentations of peer-reviewed contributed papers.

To Collaborate the Scientific Professionals Around the world
Date of Conference	January 27-29, 2011
Venue Of Conference	Novotel & HICC Complex, Hyderabad
Spotlights	New Techniques for Proteome Analysis
Sponsors	Click Here Sponsorship Opportunities
Speaker Opportunity	Day 1: Available	Day 2: Available	Day 3: Available

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BIOCON, Inc., Pfizer Inc. In Potential $350 Million Insulin Licensing Deal

Creating an alliance to deliver insulin treatments worldwide, Biocon and Pfizer have entered into a global commercialisation agreement. Pfizer will make an upfront payment of USD 200 million in a licensing deal for Biocon’s biosimilar insulin portfolio for diabetes treatment. As per the agreement, Biocon will also be eligible to get additional payments of up to USD 150 million. These payments will be linked to sales of Biocon’s insulin biosimilars.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Vikas Dandekar of pharmasianews.com gave his perspective on the deal.

Excerpts from Reporter's Diary on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show »

Q: What do you make of this arrangement? First of all tell is what is the potential the market size as far as this insulin is concerned and what does this mean both for Biocon and Pfizer?

A: A number of biosimilars are scheduled to be launched in the European market. A number of trials are going on, on insulin and this is a big potential of about USD 4 to 6 billion in all of the total market. These are also for analogs of insulin. There is Glargine which is Lantus developed by Sanofi-Aventis. Then we have Novo Nordisk's Novolog which is Aspart. We also have Lispro which is Eli Lilly's product.

These are all very big products, very big companies which have dominated this insulin scenario for many years. Once the patents for all of these insulin expire, it will be a very big opportunity which Pfizer does not want to miss out right now.

So the question is how will Pfizer share the revenues. The fact that it has already committed a massive sum of about USD 200 million, the question is Biocon has a deal going on with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). So there will be a couple of issues there which have still not come out. Maybe from Biocon's side it will be explained later.

But all in all, it makes a very strong revenue projection for Biocon. There will be a lot of price issues because a number of companies are going to be launched. So those are a couple of doubts.

Q: Why do you think that Pfizer has actually chosen to go ahead with Biocon for this arrangement?

A: Biocon has developed a strong portfolio of the insulin and insulin analog. As I pointed out earlier that there are only 3-4 companies which have been dominating this insulin scenario - Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis and Eli Lilly.

Going forward being the largest company in the world and diabetic population is also going to rise, and also earlier in 2007 Pfizer actually failed in its oral insulin ambition when Exubera was called back because of certain adoption issues. So the ambition for Pfizer to be a strong player in diabetes remains that way.

Probably insulin is also something that is close to Biocon. They are also developing their IN105 which is the oral insulin. They have filed the IND (investigational new drug), and phase-III data is still awaited. Going forward there is a lot of potential that Biocon has in this particular segment. Probably this is what opens the doors for them.

Q: So this is the first kind of arrangement for Biocon as far as BMS is concerned?

A: No. Biocon has a very strong collaboration with BMS. They are working together on a large number of pre-clinical candidates through their Bangalore R&D centre. They also have some work going on insulin as well.

That will be a big question to be answered as to how this model is going to be shared if BMS is also one of the parties to be playing a role in this insulin opportunity. Also biosimilars is a wider opportunity for Biocon because Mylan has also got a deal with Biocon. So there are a number of big players which have got gravitated towards Biocon.

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Bioinformatics Workshops @ Lucknow

Workshop: Developing Bioinformatics applications with Bioperl 
Duration: 5 days, Registration Fee: Rs. 2000 /-  
Starting date: November 05 - 09, 2010 

Workshop: Biological sequence analysis
Duration: 3 days, Registration Fee: Rs. 1000 /-
Starting date: November 26 - 28, 2010 

Venue:The Bioinformatica Solutions,lucknow

Fee should be deposited through bank draft in the name of

"The Bioinformatica Solutions" payable at Lucknow. 

Follow this link to apply http://www.thebioinformatica.com/Registration.htm 

4 global drugmakers submit bids for India's Paras Pharma buy

Global drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis AG and U.S.-based Johnson & Johnson have submitted concrete bids to acquire majority stake in the Indian unlisted firm Paras Pharmaceuticals, the Business Standard reported on Tuesday.

The initial bids were much lower at around $600-$700 million, from the earlier expected valuation of close to $1 billion, the newspaper reported citing unidentified sources.

"While more serious players such as Japan's Taisho Pharmaceutical are expected to join the race, domestic FMCG majors like Emami and Dabur are unlikely to place a bid for the company," the paper quoted a source as saying.

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Pfizer Inc. to buy King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Sterile Products Operations for $3.6 Billion Cash

Pfizer Inc. and King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer will acquire King, a diversified specialty pharmaceutical discovery and clinical development company, for $3.6 billion in cash, or $14.25 per share, which represents a premium of approximately 40% to King's closing price as of October 11, 2010, and 46% percent to the one-month average closing price as of the same date. The transaction was approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to be accretive to Pfizer's adjusted diluted earnings per share(1) by approximately $0.02 annually in 2011 and 2012, and approximately$0.03 - $0.04 annually from 2013 through 2015.

The transaction will further expand Pfizer's business profile, providing immediate, incremental diversified revenues generated by King's portfolio, including a prescription pharmaceutical business focused on delivering new formulations of pain treatments designed to discourage common methods of misuse and abuse, the Meridian auto- injector business for emergency drug delivery, which develops and manufactures the EpiPen® and is a long-term, critical supplier to the U.S. Department of Defense, and an animal health business that offers a variety of feed additive products for a wide range of species. King's three key businesses are not only complementary to Pfizer's businesses, but are also strategically aligned with Pfizer's Primary Care, Established Products and Animal Health business units, enabling a seamless combination that will maximize King's assets with Pfizer's global organization's scale and resources.


This strategic combination will allow Pfizer to leverage its existing commercial capabilities and expertise to create one of the leading broad portfolios for pain relief and management in the biopharmaceutical industry, offering both currently marketed opioid and non-opioid products, as well as a pipeline spanning stages of clinical development. In addition to Pfizer's current treatments for pain which include Lyrica and Celebrex King will bring Avinza, the Flector Patch and the recently launched Embeda, the first approved opioid pain product with design features intended to discourage misuse and abuse, two compounds in registration, which have the potential to lower the risk of abuse, as well as other compounds in development.


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J. Craig Venter Institute has created the first synthetic organellar genome

A team of researchers from the J. Craig Venter Institute has created the first synthetic organellar genome, using a method called isothermal DNA assembly to construct a synthetic mouse mitochondrial genome from hundreds of overlapping oligonucleotides.

The work, published online yesterday in Nature Methods, is the latest in a series of synthetic biology achievements by the group.

JCVI researchers reported in Science in 2008 that they had put together fourMycoplasma genitalium quarter genomes in Escherichia coli and yeast to create the first synthetic genome, dubbed M. genitalium JCVI-1.0. They later tweaked this process, showing that they could assemble the synthetic M. genitalium genome in a single step in yeast.

And earlier this year the team took another step toward synthetic life when they made a synthetic M. mycoides genome, transplanted it into another bacterial species, M. capricolum, and showed that these transplanted cells were functional and could self-replicate.

For the latest study, the researchers turned their attention to a smaller genome, the 16,299 base mitochondrial genome from mice, which they assembled using the isothermal assembly method.

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2 day workshop on Protein Structural Analysis & Homology Modelling

Two-day national-level workshop on Protein Structural Analysis & Homology Modelling

DATES: October 23-24, 2010

LOCALE: Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, 

Padmashree Dr. D. Y. Patil University Sector 15, CBD, 

Belapur, Navi Mumbai-400614, India

Janu Ganak and the Bioinformatics Community of the Department of
Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Padmashree Dr. D Y Patil 

University, are pleased to inform you that a two day workshop

on "PROTEIN STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS AND HOMOLOGY 

MODELLING" is being organized. This workshop is the second

of a series of workshops that are aimed at giving complete 

hands-on experience in various tools and techniques used 

in the fields of life science and bioinformatics. This workshop

is aimed at giving practical experience on the basic methods of
visualization, analysis and modeling of protein structures using
bioinformatics tools. 

Both under-graduate and post-graduate students
can participate in this workshop. Interested candidates from the
research fraternity as well as faculties from various areas of the
life sciences are also welcome. We hope that this workshop will
provide a fairly good amount of knowledge about the retrieval of
proteins structures and their handling, which is essential in all
fields of the life sciences.

REGISTRATION:

Kindly email "dypbioinfo@gmail.com" to obtain a brochure, a
registration form, or for further details.

Last date of registration: October 20, 2010

Courtesy: Bioinformatics.org

4th Asian Young Researchers Conference on Computational and Omics Biology

The 4th Asian Young Researchers Conference on Computational and Omics Biology is jointly organized by the Joint-International Society for Computational Biology Student Council ISCB-SC Regional Student Group RSG Japan, Korea and Singapore; young researchers in Taiwan and the GCOE program “Genome BigBang” of The University of Tokyo, Japan.

The 4th AYRCOB aims to achieve a 2-fold objective:

1) To provide an avenue of exposure for students who are interested in the areas Computational and Omics Biology to participate in lectures of current topics from leading scientists of the field.

2) To establish international collaboration through interaction and discussion with fellow participants.

** Travel expenses of selected ORAL presenters will be FULLY COVERED by the conference sponsors! ** 

Key Dates

Wednessday, 25th August 2010: Call for Abstract Opens

Monday, 13th September 2010: Website Registration open

Monday, 25th October 2010: Abstract Submission Deadline

Friday, 5th November 2010: Abstract Acceptance Notification

Wednesday, 10th November 2010: Abstract Acceptance Deadline

1st to 3rd December 2010: Main conference (lectures, orals, posters, and discussions)

2rd to 3rd December 2010: 1st Joint Clinical Bioinformatics Symposium and Singapore Symposium on Computational Biology 2010

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LifeTech completed acquisition of Ion Torrent for $375 million

Here is the climax of the stories Life Technologies to Acquire Ion Torrent for up to $725M and The Argument Continues - Blue Ray or HD, Intel or AMD and now Illumina or Life Tech? Life Technologies has completed its acquisition of Ion Torrent 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.

The acquisition adds Ion Torrent's semiconductor chip-based sequencing platform, which measures the release of hydrogen ions as nucleotides get incorporated by DNA polymerase. Unlike other existing second-generation sequencers, it does not require lasers, cameras, or labels. The first system based on the technology is the Personal Genome Machine sequencer, which will be launched in the fourth quarter of this year.

Life Technologies said that the transaction is expected to be $.02 dilutive to its earnings per share in 2010, neutral in 2011, and accretive in 2012 and beyond. The firm said that its EPS forecast for this year is unchanged at $3.35 to $3.50.

At the time the acquisition was announced in August, John Sullivan, director of equity research at investment bank Leerink Swann, said in a research note that Life Technologies is paying "a full price, given the commercial risks, but Ion Torrent's technology looks differentiated."

But Life Technologies CEO Greg Lucier defended the potential $725 million purchase price two weeks ago at the UBS Global Life Sciences Conference, saying that Ion Torrent's technology will help make sequencing technology available for different applications and for users that otherwise may not have access to it. According to Lucier, the technology could "revolutionize the whole genetic testing market."

Robert Geoffrey Edwards, for developing in vitro fertilization (IVF) in humans, receives this year's Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

Robert Geoffrey Edwards, who developed in vitro fertilization (IVF) in humans, will receive this year's Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

Human oocyte Image:wikimedia commons/Ekem

The initially controversial technology has since produced more than 4 million babies worldwide to otherwise infertile parents.

When Edwards, now professor emeritus at the University of Cambridge, started his research on infertility in the 1950s, scientists had already successfully fertilized eggs from rabbits in test tubes and produced young. It didn't take much time for Edwards to realize that fertilization outside of the uterus could be a viable option for human couples who were having issues conceiving.

While on the road to developing IVF, Edwards made myriad discoveries that have contributed to researchers' understanding of the maturation of the human egg cell. For example, he deciphered how different hormones control the development of the egg, as well as when the egg is most receptive to fertilization. Finally, in 1969, all the hard work paid off when Edwards, for the first time in history, fertilized a human egg cell in a test tube.

But the road to successfully producing a live, healthy baby in vitro was unpaved and rocky. Initially, the fertilized egg couldn't make it past single cell division. One possible flaw, Edwards guessed, was that the eggs needed to mature inside the ovaries and then subsequently be removed for IVF. Safe ways to accomplish this task, however, remained unknown at the time.

With the help of Patrick Steptoe, once a gynecologist and medical researcher at Royal Oldham Hospital in the UK (now deceased), Edwards was able to fertilize eggs that developed into early embryos. Shortly after this advancement, however, the Medical Research Council cut funding on the project, citing ethical concerns about the technique. The MRC wasn't alone--Edwards received a great deal of criticism concerning the ethics behind his research from religious leaders and scientists alike. However, a private donation kept his research afloat.

On July 25th 1978, years of research paid off when Louise Brown, daughter of Leslie and John Brown, was delivered by Caesarian section after a normal nine-month pregnancy.
Do you want to know more? read the full story on The Scientist

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2010 Robert G. Edwards