Bio Saga Blog - A Chronicle of Life Sciences & Informatics

In continuation to BioSaga's pursuit to cover the PerkinElmer's Layoff Saga The Layoffs Continue...  The story now is never-ending, here is the latest! PerkinElmer reduced its headcount by 74 employees in the fourth quarter of 2013, bringing the total headcount reduction during the year to 430, it disclosed in its Form 10K filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. During the fourth quarter, the company approved a restructuring plan to shift certain R&D activity resources to a newly opened Center for Innovation, resulting in the 74 layoffs. All employees were notified of their termination by Dec. 29, 2013. A total of $3.9 million was recorded in severance payments related to the layoffs in Q4 2013, PerkinElmer said, adding remaining severance payments of $2.0 million for workforce reductions will be "substantially completed" by the end of Q2 2014. The company had previously disclosed it laid off 30 employees in Q3; 265 employees ...

This is really getting interesting, BioSaga is making history as we keep blogging! The  GATTACA SAGA ! is coming to an reality! The Race has just begun! today for  Olympian Genes; tomorrow may be for a pianist with pair of hands with 6 fingers each!  There is now no limt to the human imagination there could be a new profession  as GENE ARCHITECT or a GENOME SCULPTOR!  Beginning in 2015, Uzbekistan says it will incorporate genetic testing into its search for Olympic athletes, the Atlantic reports. Rustam Muhamedov from Uzbekistan's Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry's genetics laboratory notes that he and his colleagues have been studying the genes of Uzbek athletes and are working on developing a set of 50 genes to determine what sport a child is best suited for. "Developed countries throughout the world like the United States, China, and European countries are researching the human genome and have discovered genes that define a...

O ne more story in our very own GATTACA SAGA ! Patient advocacy groups Global Genes and Swan USA announced on Tuesday a program to provide whole-exome sequencing to patients with rare diseases who cannot afford such services. Beginning March 1, Global Genes and Swan USA will provide funding for the whole-exome sequencing of about 30 undiagnosed patients in order to identify the genetic bases of their ailments. Parabase Genomics and the UCLA Clinical Genomics Center were selected as the first clinical genomic sequencing providers for the pilot project. Global Genes is a rare and genetic disease patient advocacy group, and Swan USA provides support to families of children living with diseases and syndromes that have yet to be named. According to them, a genomic test costs between $3,500 and $5,000. The financing for the program was raised through a donor-directed fund launched in September, and additional funding is underway in order to expand the program to include more undia...