Jun 4, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Milestone achievement may lead to more sophisticated clinical laboratory tests
Now science can create synthetic life forms and J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., is the first to do it. The landmark feat, which involved building the genome of a bacterium from scratch and incorporating it into a cell, “paves the way for designer organisms that are built rather than evolved,” noted the author of an article in guardian.co.uk.
J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., best known to pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists for his role in sequencing the first human genome, achieved the feat at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland. Venter and his team synthesized the 1.08 million base pair chromosome of a modified Mycoplasma mycoides genome. The synthetic cell, called Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0, is proof of the principle that genomes can be designed in the computer, chemically made in the laboratory, and transplanted into a recipient cell to produce a new self-replicating cell controlled by the synthetic genome. The experiment demonstrates how fast genetic technologies are advancing.
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Mar 5, 2010 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
After Laboratory Tests are Conducted, Newborn Screening Cards are Saved for Research
For decades, pathologists and clinical laboratory scientists have been part of a seemingly innocuous public health practice begun in the 1960s: newborn blood testing. Now, because of recent advances in genetic tests and molecular diagnostics, growing numbers of parents are concerned about how the government handles the DNA of their newborn babies.
Laboratories and clinical data warehouse facilities across the nation are in possession of millions of cards, each which carries spots of heel-prick blood taken from a newborn baby. These cards contain the samples used to perform laboratory tests required by law to screen newborn infants for a number of devastating genetic diseases. This screening identifies about 5,000 babies each year that require early treatment appropriate to their condition to minimize or prevent damage or even death.
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Dec 9, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
There’s a green bonus: GenVault’s new storage systems can reduce a clinical laboratory’s carbon footprint
Innovative laboratory technologies continue to disrupt the status quo as new products and services enter the marketplace. Among them is new dry-storage technology from Carlsbad, California-based GenVault Corp. that allows biological specimens to be stored at room temperature. It is a technology that has applications for medical laboratories and pathology groups.
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Aug 17, 2009 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Young physicians want more transparency in financial relationships
By their actions, Generation Y doctors are sending a clear message that they want to take the ethical high road in their dealings with drug companies and medical device developers. In medical schools across the nation, young physicians are speaking up about what they consider to be one element of greed in their profession.
Their advocacy group, the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), is calling for a crackdown on professional ethics violations. Medical students are particularly concerned about relationships with drug and medical device developers that pose a conflict of interest. To call attention to this issue, AMSA now rates academic medical centers on how well they monitor and control money from drug and medical products companies. These results are available to the public.
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