Weekly Twitter Roundup: Bio-IT World Edition

Posted by Dan Vorhaus on April 23, 2010

Each week there are a number of stories and developments that, for one reason or another, don’t find their way into a full-length posting on the Genomics Law Report. In addition, this past week I spoke at the 9th Annual Bio-IT World Conference, and provided live updates from several of the other sessions at the conference. So, this version of the Weekly Twitter Roundup comes in two sections: the regular roundup followed by my tweets from Bio-IT World.

Part I: A recap of the standard @genomicslawyer Tweets:

A roundup of the DNA Day happenings from @gw_dailyscan: http://bit.ly/c3xgtU
RT @phylogenomics And the @23andme DNA day discount of 99$, offline for a few minutes, is back
RT @PLoS Sage Commons Congress is tomorrow. Totally booked but watch webcast http://fora.tv/live/cc/Sage_Commons_Congress
GLR Post: The Havasupai Indians & the Challenge of Informed Consent for Genomic Research http://bit.ly/96DAbo
Striking similarities b/w Havasupai and #HeLa story told by @RebeccaSkloot Simply: informed consent for genomic research is hard.
Havasupai tribe settles DNA/informed consent case with university: http://nyti.ms/aMmiLw Another vote for open consent?
Second sequenced family goes public: http://bit.ly/d9WRQx Rare disease combo likely made anonymity functionally impossible.
RT @dgmacarthur Both @23andme and @Navigenics offering targeted discounts to Intel employees http://bit.ly/bCKRgt (via @GenCounsNews)
Got a great idea for how personal genomics can improve lives? You could win an exome sequence from @Knome at #GET2010 http://bit.ly/9UuTyZ
RT @bmahersciwriter: Elaine Mardis: The cost of sequencing a tumour is immaterial. The analysis is what’s expensive. #AACR10
RT @GenomeWeb_News: Duke, LabCorp Form Personalized Medicine JV: http://bit.ly/c8YcdR
Provides a nice historical context for the Myriad decision: RT @FurnoX: The NEJM on Gene Patenting http://ow.ly/1AKHV
XConomy.com debuts Detroit coverage: http://bit.ly/9qJu3D Next stop: Research Triangle Park, NC? @ldtimmerman @Ryan_McBride
RT @dgmacarthur: Pathway Genomics seems to be moving heavily into carrier testing: http://j.mp/ahY27o
Recreational sequencing for the whole family: http://bit.ly/cBrMnM via @dgmacarthur
RT @MishaAngrist @David_Dobbs: Genes & temperament etc. http://bit.ly/bfcs8s Looking forward to the discussion and the beverages at #GET2010
RT @PHGFoundation: Non-medical DNA sequencing of parents and teenagers http://bit.ly/cc450F
RT @crossborderbio: RT @FierceBiotech: Biomarker breakthrough highlights potential of adaptive trials. http://is.gd/bzuqb
RT @bioitworld: Look for the debut of @dnanexus at #BioIT10 next week — next-gen sequencing data management meets the Cloud
RT @dgmacarthur: RT @EdwardWinstead: Closing the gaps in the reference human genome http://bit.ly/8XMV2P
GLR gets an early start on DNA Day, hosting Blawg Review http://bit.ly/aPDmk1 & Scientia Pro Publica http://bit.ly/dmpOSs
RT @genetics_blog: Stephen Colbert on gene patenting http://bit.ly/bx37kQ “Note to ACLU: Don’t make enemies with the people who own cancer”
The dangers of growing DNA databases http://bit.ly/9pVMzI “California is poised to become an anti-human rights trailblazer”
RT @crossborderbio: X PRIZE plans $100m more prizes, new targets include TB http://bit.ly/8Xgm7H
RT @crossborderbio: Biotech Trends Update Social Media for Biotechs: Building Momentum Toward Critical Mass http://ow.ly/175sBx
Nice recap of Claire-King genetic heterogeneity/GWAS paper from @genetics_blog: http://bit.ly/dvXhZp
$HLCS receives delisting notice (http://bit.ly/aYKtJf), considers repositioning as MDx firm (http://bit.ly/d9khJV) (via @GenomeWeb_News)
New Tricks for Genome Sequencing (plus when we might see a handheld sequencing device): http://bit.ly/djjuCI (via @techreview)
Family becomes first to have DNA sequenced for non-medical reasons: http://bit.ly/aYRtiU Wests will be speaking at #GET2010
RT @dgmacarthur: China launches campaign to sterilise nearly 10,000 family-planning rule violators: http://bit.ly/bI3SzJ (via @ilanafish)

Part II: A recap of the live-Tweeting from Bio-IT World. For more commentary from the conference please visit the #BioIT10 page.

MC: SNPedia as a wiki has same potential for abuse as wikipedia, but as a practical matter doesn’t happen #BioIT10
MC: very much ready for full genomes at SNPedia – that day is coming, and fast #BioIT10
MC: Considers @23andMe to offer the best SNP/$ ratio of the DTC providers #BioIT10
MC: lots of the traction/use of SNPedia being driven by genealogy community, not scientific/medical communities #BioIT10
MC: SNPedia is a program – source code read by Promethease; ability to create custom genosets #BioIT10
MC: happy to find he’s heterozygote for learning SNP (rs6265), same as George Church, Jim Watson #BioIT10
MC: everything lives in a wiki, which means everything is really just text..but can still be computable, structured #BioIT10
Mike Cariaso of SNPedia giving an excellent talk in Track #2 on origins/uses of SNPedia, Promethease #BioIT10
Great talk by DS. Now up: keynote panel on future of personal genomics w/ K Stefansson, D Stephan, @jamie_heywood and yours truly #BioIT10
DS: interesting AWS spot instances market for cloud – has commoditized cloud availability #BioIT10
DS: core tenets of AWS/cloud computing: scalability, elasticity, highly available #BioIT10
DS: AWS involved opening up A’s back end for “undifferentiated heavy lifting” #BioIT10
DS: describing dev of massively scaleable infrastructure for Amazon web services. Something that didn’t break down every xmas #BioIT10
DS: everything is changing re: data management/processing/sharing. New sources/sizes/uses #BioIT10
DS: Data-intensive scientific research (not just NGS) is the new paradigm #BioIT10
Deepak Singh giving keynote on cloud computing at #BioIT10: “There is no magic, there is only awesome.”
RT @bioitworld Halamka Goal for patient Dx is to go from MD’s brain to patient’s vein electronically – no paper #BioiT10
SF: despite the hype, we are at an exciting time; but not about data, technology; about new collaborative models #BioIT10
SF: going to need to work out common standards to take the next step; this includes working out privacy, IP, regulatory standards #BioIT10
SF: bioinformatics is where the future (and the $) is. Knowledge expert, not physician, will be at center of care #BioIT10
SF: need to shift the paradigm: if somebody (e.g., gov’t) pays to generate data, the data needs to be opened up #BioIT10
SF: the only way people share data is if 1) you pay them, 2) they think they’ll make $ or 3) they believe they’ll be left behind #BioIT10
SF: our primal brains love to keep things to ourselves. “There is no altruism” – must be incentivized to share #BioIT10
SF: new acronym: GCD = global coherent datasets. Middle layer between DNA and outcomes, which is required for accurate modeling #BioIT10
SF: why I left Merck: needs to be some place to share the data and the models; person generating data is not interpreting it #BioIT10
SF: with layers of disease information you can locate weak spots #BioIT10
SF: only possible to get causality (as opposed to association) w/ 3 layers of disease (e.g., DNA, expression, clinical outcomes) #BioIT10
SF: our models of disease are insufficient to data we have now, let alone the data that is coming #BioIT10
SF: need to locate fragile positions, pivot points in pathways; what the rest of the cell, pathway is doing is irrelevant #BioIT10
SF: linear pathways simply won’t do it; targets for drugs will come from non-redundant portions of disease pathways #BioIT10
SF: adaptive clinical trials are not going to be sufficient; won’t fundamentally change quality of care #BioIT10
SF: change in understanding of disease models will be as fundamental a paradigm shift as Copernicus -> Galileo #BioIT10
SF: we are in denial about how little we know about disease models, how well our existing therapies work #BioIT10
Stephen Friend, Sage Bionetworks, talking about need for clinicians/scientist to move to an open, collaborative model #BioIT10
RT @bioitworld Halamka Goal for patient Dx is to go from MD’s brain to patient’s vein electronically – no paper #BioiT10
RT @bioitworld: #BioIT10 starts today! If there are a few holes in the agenda, blame #Eyjafjallajökull