In what could prove to be a landmark event in pharmacogenomic medicine, US firm Clinical Data has launched a phase III clinical trial for the depression drug vilazodone and will concurrently develop a diagnostic test.

Mervyn Jacobson, executive chairman of biotech firm Genetic Technologies (ASX:GTG, Nasdaq:GENE), says his company is poised to launch an extensive international search for license partners for its far-reaching non-coding DNA patents.

Science magazine editor-in-chief Donald Kennedy has issued a statement detailing the prestigious weekly magazine's decision to formally retract two papers published in 2004 and 2005 by Hwang Woo-Suk and colleagues at Seoul National University in South Korea.

Just two days after the US National Institutes of Health launched a $100-million cancer genome pilot project, a group of prominent cancer scientists has proposed a related genome-wide project be launched that would map the myriad small chemical modifications to the genome.

Barely 30 months after the official groundbreaking ceremony, MIT officially opened the McGovern Institute for Brain Research on Friday with a celebration featuring personalities from science, politics, and entertainment.

A landmark publication by an international consortium of more than 200 scientists has produced a comprehensive catalogue of human genetic variation.

Adding even greater incentive to scientists striving to realise the era of the US$1000 genome sequence, Craig Venter has announced that he is seeking to increase the size of his foundation's prize from $500,000 to as much as $10 million.

Sir Alec Jeffreys and Sir Edwin Southern -- two giants who helped establish the modern field of molecular genetics -- have shared in the 2005 Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research.

Kevin Davies spoke with Jonathan Rothberg, the founder of 454 Life Sciences, on the eve of the publication of his company's landmark paper in Nature.

An international team including researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has discovered that mammalian chromosomes have evolved over tens of millions of years by breaking at specific sites rather than randomly, as had been widely thought.

Two new companies are giving birth to the industry of synthetic biology.