InfoAnda - Insight: Crunching the numbers to boost odds against cancer |

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

NY man convicted for running 'zoo from hell' | 27 May 2009
Unflattering Pre-Photoshopped Pics Of Madonna Surface On Internet Blogs | 10 February 2010
Pakistan c.bank buys 36.85 bln rupees of govt paper | 12 September 2009

First time jobless claims down slightly to 405,000 | 15 July 2011

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Insight: Crunching the numbers to boost odds against cancer |

Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Home Business Business Home Economy Technology Media Small Business Legal Deals Earnings Social Pulse Business Video The Freeland File Aerospace & Defense Investing Simplified Markets Markets Home U.S. Markets European Markets Asian Markets Global Market Data Indices M&A Stocks Bonds Currencies Commodities Futures Funds peHUB Dividends World World Home U.S. Brazil China Euro Zone Japan Mexico Russia India Insight World Video Reuters Investigates Decoder Politics Politics Home Election 2012 Campaign Polling Supreme Court Politics Video Tech Technology Home MediaFile Science Tech Video Tech Tonic Social Pulse Opinion Opinion Home Chrystia Freeland John Lloyd Felix Salmon Jack Shafer David Rohde Nader Mousavizadeh Lucy P. Marcus Nicholas Wapshott Bethany McLean Anatole Kaletsky Edward Hadas Hugo Dixon Ian Bremmer Lawrence Summers Susan Glasser The Great Debate Steven Brill Reihan Salam Frederick Kempe Christopher Papagianis Mark Leonard Breakingviews Equities Credit Private Equity M&A Macro & Markets Politics Breakingviews Video Money Money Home Tax Break Lipper Awards 2012 Global Investing MuniLand Unstructured Finance Linda Stern Mark Miller John Wasik James Saft Analyst Research Alerts Watchlist Portfolio Stock Screener Fund Screener Personal Finance Video Money Clip Investing 201 Life Health Sports Arts Faithworld Business Traveler Entertainment Oddly Enough Lifestyle Video Pictures Pictures Home Reuters Photographers Full Focus Video Reuters TV Reuters News Article Comments (1) Pictures Reuters Photojournalism Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography. See more | Photo caption Hurricane Sandy The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Slideshow Halloween: Before and after Before and afters from a Halloween Horror Party in Germany. Slideshow Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Death toll up, gasoline lines grow in monster storm's wake | 10:25am EDT Vatican may eventually limit Sistine Chapel visits 31 Oct 2012 Obama to use "affirmative" message in closing pitch 4:45am EDT Republican candidate calls aborting rapist's child "more violence on woman's body" 12:42am EDT Republican candidate calls aborting rapist's child 'more violence on woman's body' 12:41am EDT Discussed 93 Race is tied, but most think Obama will win: Reuters/Ipsos poll 87 Analysis: U.S. presidential race is all about Ohio – or is it? 67 Obama votes, picks up Powell endorsement amid swing state push Sponsored Links Insight: Crunching the numbers to boost odds against cancer Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Microsoft highlights Surface at Windows 8 launch Thu, Oct 25 2012 Biogen third-quarter profit rises, as does 2012 forecast Thu, Oct 25 2012 UPDATE 3-SAP software sales top forecast as wins market share Wed, Oct 24 2012 Abbott says kidney drug study halted; shares drop Thu, Oct 18 2012 Microsoft profit slips as PCs fizzle; Windows 8 awaited Thu, Oct 18 2012 Analysis & Opinion Declare victory in the war on drugs – then run like hell Free and Open Data as a Worldwide Economic Engine Related Topics Health » Tech » Media » Sandy in photos The aftermath of Sandy showcased in a series of large format pictures. Full Article A dispensing chemist prepares drugs for a chemotherapy treatment in a sterile room at Antoine-Lacassagne Cancer Centre in Nice October 18, 2012. Picture taken October 18, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Eric Gaillard By Ludwig Burger FRANKFURT | Thu Nov 1, 2012 11:15am EDT FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Software engineers are moving to the fore in the war on cancer, designing programmes that sift genetic sequencing data at lightning speed and minimal cost to identify patterns in tumors that could lead to the next medical breakthrough. Their analysis aims to pinpoint the mutations in our genetic code that drive cancers as diverse as breast, ovarian and bowel. The more precise their work is, the better the chance of developing an effective new drug. Ever since James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA in 1953, scientists have been puzzling over how genes make us who we are. The confluence of computing and medicine is accelerating the pace of genetic research. But making sense of the swathes of data has become a logjam. That, in turn has created an opportunity for computer geeks and tech firms such as Microsoft, SAP and Amazon. Oncology is the largest area of therapy in the global drugs market with market researcher IMS predicting it will increase to $83-$88 billion by 2016 from $62 billion in 2011. Computational genomics - using computers to decipher a person's genetic instructions and the mutations in cancerous cells - is emerging as the driver of this growth. Life Technologies Corp and Illumina Inc are among firms developing equipment that can extract a person's entire genetic code - their genome - from a cell sample. The newest machines are about the size of an office printer and can sequence a genome in a day, compared with six to eight weeks a few years ago. They can read the 3.2 billion chemical "bases" that make up the human genetic code for $1,000, compared with $100,000 dollars in 2008. Growing numbers of software engineers are needed to help make sense of all this data. "Many labs can now generate the data but fewer people or labs have the expertise and infrastructure to analyze it - this is becoming the bottleneck," said Gad Getz, who heads the Cancer Genome Analysis group at the Broad Institute in Boston, jointly run by MIT and Harvard. Getz is one of a new generation of computational biologists who develop algorithms to parse data from tens of thousands of cell samples, shared with research institutes around the globe. He and his team of 30 are trying to establish recurring patterns in the mutations and how they are linked to tumor growth. They are using some 1,200 processing units, each with 4-8 gigabytes of random access memory - about the computing power that comes with most desktop PCs. HARVESTING KNOWLEDGE Eli Lilly CEO John Lechleiter sees potential for progress. "We are starting to harvest the knowledge that we gained through the sequencing of the human genome, our understanding of human genetics, disease pathways. We've got new tools that we can use in the laboratory to help us get to an answer much, much faster," said Lechleiter, whose firm is co-owner of the rights to bowel cancer drug Erbitux. Approved drugs that take genetic information into account include Amgen's Vectibix and AstraZeneca's Iressa. But both these drugs derive from a single mutation. Sequencing has laid bare many more mutant genes - often hundreds in any given tumor - and highlighted the need for a subtler approach to cancer treatment. Roche, the world's largest maker of cancer medicines, has spent several million euros on information technology for a pilot scheme examining how cancer cells in petri dishes react to new drugs. The scheme involves crunching hundreds of terabytes of gene sequences. "It's the first large-scale in-house sequencing project for Roche and we expect more to follow in the near future," said Bryn Roberts, Roche's head of informatics in drug research and early development. Roberts said the project, which uses processing power equivalent to hundreds of high-end desktop PCs, was self contained but there were plans to draw in external data. This would require advances in cloud computing - using software and computing power from remote data centers - but Roberts said the technology would soon be available. "The scale of the problem means the solution will be on an international collaborative scale," he said. OPPORTUNITIES IN CLOUDS The trend of using cloud computing networks to allow commercial and public researchers to share cancer data is promising for the likes of IBM and Google which according to GBI Research are already established providers of cloud computing to drug makers' research efforts. Amazon, with its cloud computing unit AWS, said it is benefiting as life science researchers rethink how data is stored, analyzed and shared. "We are happy with the growth we are seeing," a spokesman said, declining to provide figures. Microsoft said it was dedicating "significant resources" to the expansion of cloud computing in the health and life sciences markets. "Pharma R&D will be working with other technology companies, like Microsoft, in developing new algorithms, methodologies and indeed even therapies themselves," said Les Jordan, chief technology strategist at Microsoft's Life Sciences unit. The world's largest business software company SAP has teamed up with German genetic testing specialist Qiagen. They are modifying SAP database software so that certain cancer diagnostic tests, which now keep a network of super computers busy for days, can be run on a desktop PC within hours. Genetic analysis has revealed that types of cancer, now treated as one because they are in the same organ and look the same under the microscope, are driven by different genetics. Hans Lehrach at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin says every single tumor should be seen as an "orphan disease", using a term for rare illnesses that typically prompt drug regulators to make drug approval easier. He has designed a software he describes as a virtual patient. It suggests a drug or a mix of drugs based on each tumor's genetic fingerprint. A single case can take several days to be processed. Lehrach, a geneticist who says he has written software code throughout his scientific career, likens his approach to that of a meteorologist who regards every day's set of readings as unique. Taking the analogy further, he says the convention of stratifying cancer patients is equivalent to a weather forecast based on simple rules such as 'red sky in the morning, sailor take warning'. At a unit of Berlin's Charite university hospital, 20 patients left with no other treatment options for their aggressive type of skin cancer are being diagnosed based on Lehrach's computer model. The trial is exploratory and there are no results yet on the overall treatment success, but the project, like many others, is driven by the hope that cancer can be wrestled down by sheer computing power. (Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Janet McBride) Health Tech Media Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (1) minutemanII wrote: Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com Business Markets World Politics Technology Opinion Money Pictures Videos Site Index Legal Bankruptcy Law California Legal New York Legal Securities Law Support & Contact Support Corrections Connect with Reuters Twitter Facebook LinkedIn RSS Podcast Newsletters Mobile About Privacy Policy Terms of Use AdChoices Copyright Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomsonreuters.com About Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Careers Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Other News on Thursday, 1 November 2012
Clinton calls for overhaul of Syrian opposition |
Syrian rebels arm Palestinians against Assad |
UK's Cameron rocked by defeat in Europe budget vote |
Colombian peace talks push President Santos' popularity higher |
Bahrain must lift ban on all protests: Amnesty |
Yemen LNG gas pipeline blown up again |
Israeli ex-leaders discussing campaign to defeat Netanyahu |
Libya congress approves new government amid protests |
UK lawmakers to grill Starbucks, Amazon and Google on tax |
Rosetta Stone and Google settle trademark lawsuit |
RIM starts carrier testing on BlackBerry 10 devices |
Google denies 1 billion euro French tax claim |
Groupon shares drop after Sandy hit U.S. merchants |
Cirrus Logic's revenue soars on iPhone |
AT&T, T-Mobile USA to use each other's networks in NY, NJ |
BMC Software reports lower quarterly profit |
Bram Stoker's restored Dracula desk up for auction |
Expect feisty defense from China's disgraced Bo Xilai |
Syrian rebels arm Palestinians against Assad |
With eye on 2013 midterms, Argentina cuts voting age to 16 |
U.N. Security Council relocates due to storm damage: envoys |
Myanmar foreign investment bill in parliament again |
At least 10 killed by Riyadh building explosion |
Japan government open to deal with opposition to avoid fiscal cliff |
China dissident gets eight years for subversion ahead of congress |
China launches trade probes on EU solar products |
Apple's Cook fields his A-team before a wary Wall Street |
Sharp forecasts bigger full-year operating loss |
Sony posts small second-quarter profit, keeps full-year forecast |
Senate likely to revisit cyber bill when Congress returns |
Pentagon sees further use of BlackBerry as door opens to others |
China's Twitter-like Weibo poses danger, opportunity for new leaders |
Flamboyant Megaupload founder unveils file-sharing sequel |
Elpida says Tokyo court approves acquisition by Micron |
Songwriter Bill Dees, co-writer of Oh, Pretty Woman, dies at 73 |
Evan Rachel Wood marries Billy Elliot star Jamie Bell |
China proposes new initiatives for Syria ceasefire |
At least 22 killed in Riyadh fuel truck blast |
Risk of death nearing in Turkish hunger strike, doctors say |
Strike hits East African hub port Mombasa |
Savile abuse victims in Britain to sue for damages |
Fugitive Sunni Iraq VP sentenced to death on second charge |
Bulgarians use Facebook to expose slipshod police |
Three women killed in stampede at Madrid Halloween party |
Tunisia says foiled plot to kidnap local Jews |
Greek journalist calls bank list case political revenge |
Insight: Crunching the numbers to boost odds against cancer |
Sharp fears for future as Japan TV makers bleed |
NBC benefit concert on Friday to aid Sandy victims |
Book Talk: Fun bestsellers a big switch for Justin Cronin |
The Devil's General? German film seeks to debunk Rommel myth |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph	VPN on MacOSX	BlogMeter 1.01