What is a TR50 company? It is a business whose innovations force other businesses to change their strategic course. TR50 companies are nominated by Technology Review’s editors who look for companies that, over the last year, have demonstrated original and valuable technology, are bringing that technology to market at a significant scale, and are clearly influencing their competitors.

Complete Genomics was established in June 2005. Four years later, the company announced that it had sequenced its first human genome. By the end of 2009, Complete Genomics had sequenced 50 human genomes. The company has now significantly increased the throughput in its genome sequencing factory; it sequenced and analyzed 300 complete human genomes in Q3 2010.

Complete Genomics was chosen to be a TR50 company because it developed a computational platform that allows it to assemble DNA sequences into genomes more accurately than other technologies. Complete Genomics performs whole human genome DNA sequencing using proprietary biochemistry based on DNA nanoball arrays and combinatorial probe-anchor ligation sequencing.

Complete Genomics’ proprietary human genome sequencing technology is optimized for the exclusive study of human DNA. The sequencing technology relies on two primary components: DNA nanoball arrays (DNB arrays) and combinatorial probe-anchor ligation reads (cPAL reads). Fluorescence imaging is used to ”read” the nucleotide sequence at lower volumes and concentrations of reagents than existing systems. In addition, Complete Genomics’ proprietary instrumentation allows for greater numbers of base reads per image.

Although Complete Genomics delivered data for approximately 1,200 genomes in the first quarter of 2012, it lost $20.2 million dollars [2]. The company recently announced that it has sequenced the genomes of 600 individuals from 20 Mexican-American families to help identify some of the rare variants involved in type 2 diabetes that have eluded researchers [3]. The multigenerational, whole genome sequencing study is thought to be the largest whole genome sequencing family study conducted to date and the first such study of its kind in a Latino population.

Interested in other Top 10 Innovative Biomedicine companies for 2012? Check them all out with the tag 2012 Biomedicine TR50.

References

1. The 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2012. Technology Review. Accessed 2012 Apr 10.
2. Complete Genomics Reports First Quarter 2012 Results. Complete Genomics press release. 2012 May 7.
3. Whole Genome Sequencing in Type 2 Diabetes Genetic Study. Complete Genomics press release. 2012 May 9.

ADHD is the most common childhood disorder and can continue into adulthood. The disorder is characterized by intense motor restlessness, an inability to stay focused or pay attention, and radical impulsivity.

Over the past decade, ADHD diagnoses have increased 66%. Scientists recently identified a genetic link to ADHD, showing that children with the disorder have twice as many large copy number variations (CNVs) — the presence of more or less than two copies of a region of DNA due to its duplication or deletion — as healthy controls. These genomic differences may influence how individual patients tolerate ADHD medications.

The AssureRx Health genetic test helps clinicians understand a patient’s unique genomic profile and individualize medication selection. Using a simple, non-invasive cheek swab, AssureRx Health can rapidly test the sample and post a report via a secure online portal. The GeneSightRx ADHD test provides objective, evidence-based information for clinicians to personalize medication selection for each patient.

Source: Biomarker Commons

Foundation Medicine was founded by world leaders in genome technology, cancer biology and medical oncology from several renowned institutions, including the Broad Institute, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company plans to launch a clinical diagnostic test this year that uses the latest in genetic sequencing technology —  next generation sequencing — to identify personalized cancer therapies for patients. Specifically, Foundation Medicine plans to sequence approximately 200 genes, focusing  on genes and pathways that have been shown to have clinical application. The company views this as the ”sweet spot” between conventional hot spot testing (common today) and whole genome/exome sequencing.

Foundation Medicine is backed by Third Rock Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Google Ventures, bringing the scientific and medical expertise of its founding advisors together with the company-building expertise of the leading venture capitalists in the life sciences, molecular diagnostics and emerging technology fields.

Foundation Medicine was chosen to be a TR50 company because its new diagnostics exploit a growing understanding of the molecular basis of cancer. The company is partnering with pharmaceutical companies and plans to use the comprehensive cancer diagnostic test in drug development.

Interested in other Top 10 Innovative Biomedicine companies for 2012? Check them all out with the tag 2012 Biomedicine TR50.

References

1. The 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2012. Technology Review. Accessed 2012 Apr 10.

Founded in 1997, Athenahealth is a publicly traded American healthcare technology company that provides physician practices with proprietary cloud-based practice management and electronic health record (EHR) software, a continuously updated payer knowledge-base, integrated back-office service operations, live patient communications services, and other healthcare business services.

Athenahealth was chosen to be a TR50 company because its systems help doctors and patients with the morass of medical records and billing paperwork. The company’s key innovation is the development of cloud-based software for electronic health records and practice management.

Jonathan Bush, CEO of Athenahealth, will be the keynote speaker at the Health 2.0 Spring Fling: Matchpoint conference in Boston on May 14-15, 2012. The conference will showcase speakers focusing on the commercializing of the Health 2.0 movement, and Bush will detail his company’s rise from start-up to $2.5 billion market cap segment leader.

Interested in other Top 10 Innovative Biomedicine companies for 2012? Check them all out with the tag 2012 Biomedicine TR50.

References

1. The 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2012. Technology Review. Accessed 2012 Apr 10.

TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, is the world’s most famous conference on the ideas that shape the world. For the past three years, there’s been a special TED just for health and medicine — TEDMED — where passionate doers and thinkers go once a year to experience the power of new ideas, hear amazing and inspiring talks, meet innovative people, and leave transformed.

The annual TEDMED conference started today. TEDMED brings together 1500 thinkers and doers from a wide array of medical and non-medical disciplines. For the next three and a half days (April 10-13) at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., this uniquely diverse community will explore the ideas, innovations and challenges that will help shape the future of health and medicine for 300 million Americans … and the world.

TEDMED is hosting over 60 speakers this year, including Francis S. Collins, the Director of the National Institutes of Health; Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Joel Salatin, Polyface organic farmer and author; and Ivan Oransky, Executive Editor of Reuters Health.

TEDMED has no agenda and no policy prescriptions. Instead, the organization seeks to serve the nation — and the world — by creating a safe place where people with very different ideas can come together to talk, to learn and to celebrate the amazing world we live in.

Shaped like a star with 5 to 10 points, and made of gold, the “nanostar” has a large surface area that researchers load with drug molecules.

Teri W. Odom, who led the study of human cervical and ovarian cancer cells, said:

Our drug-loaded gold nanostars are tiny hitchhikers. They are attracted to a protein on the cancer cell’s surface that conveniently shuttles the nanostars to the cell’s nucleus. Then, on the nucleus’ doorstep, the nanostars release the drug, which continues into the nucleus to do its work.

Using electron microscopy, researchers found that the drug-loaded nanoparticles were actively transported to the nucleus and dramatically changed the shape of the cancer cell nucleus. The change in shape after drug release was associated with cell death and the cell population becoming less viable.

The findings are published in the journal ACS Nano [1].

Source: Northwestern University

Reference

1. Dam et al. Direct Observation of Nanoparticle-Cancer Cell Nucleus Interactions. ACS Nano. 2012 Mar 22. [Epub ahead of print]
   View abstract

iSonea recently inked a deal with Qualcomm Life, a subsidiary of Qualcomm, to combine iSonea’s proprietary Acoustic Respiratory Monitoring (ARM) devices and forthcoming mobile health asthma management offerings with Qualcomm’s recently launched 2net platform.

The partnership leverages iSonea’s ARM devices, which will collect and transmit patient health data, with Qualcomm Life’s 2net Hub, a plug-and-play connectivity gateway to the cloud-based 2net platform data server. The integration of the two platforms will automatically and securely link patient asthma symptom and trend monitoring data to a cloud-based portal for physicians and caregivers to improve asthma management and outcomes.

According to Michael J. Thomas, Chief Executive Officer of iSonea Limited:

Asthma is a widespread and growing condition that affects 300 million people worldwide and represents a major healthcare cost burden. With our smartphone platform and Qualcomm’s end-to-end wireless systems expertise, we will provide asthma patients with the ability to monitor and report breathing distress symptoms triggered by environmental factors, as well as their response to treatment. Better daily monitoring can lead to improved medication compliance, lower healthcare costs and improved chronic management of asthma. For patients or family members, better monitoring also means more peace of mind.

Source: Business Wire

He described the process of discovery this way:

The team actually started out by building a retina and they came to me and said: ‘Look, it responds to these optical illusions the same way a human does.’ They put another layer of cells behind that [and] it started to find features. They put another layer, it started to find corners or oriented lines or something. Another layer, it started to find patterns.

Jacobs is talking about Brain Corporation, a small research company that is developing novel algorithms based on the functionality of the nervous system, with applications in visual perception, motor control, and autonomous navigation. The intention is to equip consumer devices, such as mobile phones or household robots, with artificial nervous systems. Qualcomm funds Brain Corporation research and hosts the company on its campus in San Diego, California.

Scientists at Brain Corporation are re-creating in the computer the shapes of every one of the billions of nerve cells that make up our brains, the component parts of intricate neural circuits that allow us to move, see and hear, to feel and to think. With this new tool, researchers are beginning to decipher the secrets of the brain’s architecture, which may one day enable us to build smart technologies that surpass the capabilities of anything we have today.

Episode 1: Blueprint for the Brain from Science Bytes on Vimeo.

This video is based on a paper published by neuroscientist Hermann Cuntz, and colleagues in the online journal PLoS Computational Biology.

Study: One Rule to Grow Them All: A General Theory of Neuronal Branching and Its Practical Application

Source: KPBS.org

The trial was led by Dr. Steven Schwartz, opthalmologist and chief of the retina division at the Institute. Although the results are extremely promising, only two patients were treated. The trial will have to be preformed successfully many more times before the procedure can be accepted as an option for care.

Nevertheless, the preliminary findings represent a milestone in the therapeutic use of stem cells and may pave the way for a new therapy to treat eye diseases. The research was recently published online in the journal The Lancet.

Study: Embryonic stem cell trials for macular degeneration: a preliminary report

Source: UCLA Newsroom

Organized by Bill Gates and united by a new World Health Organization (WHO) strategy, which outlines goals and objectives for the enhanced control, prevention, elimination and eradication of neglected tropical diseases, thirteen 13 pharmaceutical companies — Abbott, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eisai, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi — have agreed to share their experimental compound libraries. They have also pledged to provide 14 billion treatments over the next decade.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $363 million. With funds from various other partners totaling $785 million, the project aims to erradicate many neglected tropical diseases, including blinding trachoma, leprosy, chagas disease, sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis, guinea worm, lymphatic filariasis, river blindness, schistosomiasis and yaws.

WHO director general, Margaret Chan, was encouraged by the show of unity during the launch at the Royal College of Physicians in London:

These ancient diseases are now being brought to their knees with stunning speed. With the boost to this momentum being made today, I am confident almost all of these diseases can be eliminated or controlled by the end of this decade.

Source: Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases