Latest News

  • Finally Some Theranos Data. But Not From Theranos

    Forbes | There's a central dictum in engineering, in medicine, in life, at which Theranos, the controversial blood test company, has constantly failed. "In God we trust," the mid-century statistician William Edward Deming quipped. "All others bring data." Now, once again, Theranos does not have data to bring. But researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai have done their own analysis of Theranos' tests.

    Mar 30, 2016

  • How Veritas Genetics Plans to Make Its $999 Whole Genome Stick

    Bio-IT World | The myGenome service from Veritas Genetics, a $999 screen that includes a whole genome sequence and reports on an expansive number of health conditions, is running up against both the financial and regulatory limits of what genetic testing can offer today.

    Mar 28, 2016

  • Lexington diagnostic company Quanterix looks to cancer test with $46M raise

    Boston Business Journal | ​Two months after announcing an expansion into Asia, Lexington diagnostic company Quanterix will set its sights on developing a cancer test with $46 million in Series D funding.

    Mar 25, 2016

  • Paper Diagnostic Tests Could Save Thousands of Lives

    Scientific American | Paper sensors could detect chemical and biological molecules easily in the field, but lack of funds and commercial partners mean many advances will languish in the lab.

    Mar 25, 2016

  • Tute, Newborn Screening Ontario Announce Plan for NGS Testing Panel

    Diagnostics News Brief | Newborn Screening Ontario (NSO), Tute Genomics, and UNIConnect this morning announced a project to establish the informatics infrastructure for NSO's new next-generation sequencing (NGS) testing panel. Terms and conditions of the agreement were not disclosed.

    Mar 22, 2016

  • Biocept's Dual Platform for Liquid Biopsies

    Diagnostics World | A growing number of companies are creating their own custom platforms to capture and analyze circulating tumor cells or circulating tumor DNA, as co-diagnostic tools in the treatment of cancer. Biocept of San Diego is one of the few companies with solutions for analyzing both types of cancer material in whole blood.

    Mar 18, 2016

  • Variant Classification Case to Test Culpability of Diagnostics Labs

    GenomeWeb A lawsuit filed against Quest Diagnostics subsidiary Athena Diagnostics could have far reaching repercussions for the diagnostics testing industry. If the case proceeds, a jury will have to decide whether there was sufficient evidence in the literature in 2007 for Athena Diagnostics to determine a pathogenic link between mutation and disease. The decision would set industry-changing precedent.

    Mar 17, 2016

  • CDC Tracking Origins of Mysterious Wisconsin Outbreak

    Wired | Since November, more than 50 people in Wisconsin have one by one fallen ill with an obscure kind of bacteria called Elizabethkingia.

    Mar 17, 2016

  • Researchers Say PulseNet Reaches Far Beyond Outbreak Control

    Food Safety News | A group of academics has published a study on the impacts of PulseNet, the national network of disease data for monitoring food safety threats.

    Mar 16, 2016

  • Notes from the 2016 Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference

    Diagnostics World | The 23rd annual Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference convened last week in San Francisco, Calif. The six-day event featured showcases of exciting new diagnostic products, and presentations that addressed advances in fast-growing fields like cell-free DNA assays and point-of-care testing.

    Mar 16, 2016

  • FDA Sends Three Letters Over Unapproved Zika Diagnostics

    RAPS | FDA is enforcing its oversight of Zika diagnostics with letters to two labs and two Texas hospitals for marketing "high risk" unapproved diagnostic tests for the virus.

    Mar 16, 2016

  • Xcell's New Incubator Promises Lifelike Conditions for Tests on Primary Cells

    Diagnostics World | Last week, at the Molecular Medicine Tri Conference in San Francisco, Calif., Xcell Biosciences announced the commercial launch of the Avatar System, a cell incubator designed to mimic real-life microenvironments inside the human body.

    Mar 14, 2016

  • When baby is due genetic counselors seen downplaying false alarms

    New England Center for Investigative Reporting | About 14% of genetic counselors work directly for testing companies. What does that mean for the accuracy of diagnostic tests?

    Mar 7, 2016

  • The Nanolight Revolution is Coming

    Nature News | Virus-sized particles that fluoresce in every colour could revolutionize applications from television displays to cancer treatment.

    Mar 3, 2016

  • We Need More Proof That Prenatal Gene Screens Are Beneficial

    Scientific American | The editors of Scientific American argue that the rate of false positives in new genetic tests for fetal disorders could be alarmingly high, and regulations must take this into account.

    Mar 2, 2016

  • A 3D-Printed Diagnostic Device to Detect Anemia on a Smartphone

    Tech Times | The microfluidic device allows a smartphone camera to read the color scale of a blood droplet.

    Mar 1, 2016

  • NanoString Reveals Novel Sequencing Method for Cancer Assays

    Bio-IT World | NanoString Technologies, a Seattle company with a small but comfortable niche in automated genetic analysis, is preparing to make the leap into DNA and RNA sequencing, with a highly novel process it calls Hyb and Seq.

    Feb 29, 2016

  • BioAffinity Aims to Revive Cancer Diagnostic in San Antonio

    Xconomy | The experimental test is based on the idea that lung cancer cells in sputum will differentially absorb a fluorescent molecule, providing an inexpensive confirmation after a CT scan.

    Feb 25, 2016