At the end of this month, I’d like to make a summary about the biotechnology studies published in Nature, aiming to provide a clear view of the monthly studies’ topics. And the studies were listed chronologically.

Moncef Slaoui
This is a review. Based on an event that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) surprised the industry with its decision to trade its oncology business for Novartis’ vaccine business last year. This article mainly discussed 7 questions which include: “Why did you trade your oncology business for Novartis’ vaccine business?”, “But whereas the oncology market is booming, the vaccine market has been flat for the past few years. What does this mean for your strategy?”, “How does the cost of vaccine development compare with the cost of new drug development?”, etc.
Geneticists reveal what makes great rice
Scientists in China have discovered the secret method for creating rice varieties, which could improve the three mills for millions of people. It has been revealed that two teams of molecular geneticists, working independently have identified a gene known as both GL7 and GW7 that can control both shape and texture.
Genome researchers raise alarm over big data
A team of biologists and computer scientists said that the computing resources needed to handle genome data will soon surpass those of Twitter and YouTube. But some have different opinions. They regard this as not convincing and a little glib. While they do agree that computing needs of genomics will be enormous.
Smithsonian sets up frozen-plant repository
The Smithsonian Institution has made great effort to preserve biodiversity by assembling a large number of collection of frozen vegetables. They decided to collect and freeze half of the world’s families of flora’s plant tissues. This will yield useful samples for scientist studying genomics and biodiversity.
‘Organs-on-chips’ go mainstream
Nascent technology has been touted as a way to replace animal models by scientists who are developing miniature models of human organs on plastic chips. And it has caught more and more focus as those in vitro systems are being used increasingly in drug development.
To be continued…
Source: http://www.nature.com/subjects/biotechnology