A careful study of images taken by the NASA rover Curiosity has revealed intriguing similarities between ancient sedimentary rocks on Mars and structures shaped by microbes on Earth. The findings suggest, but do not prove, that life may have existed earlier on the Red Planet.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-01-potential-ancient-life-mars-rover.html#jCp

Researchers at Northwestern University say they have discovered a common cause behind the mysterious and deadly affliction of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, that could open the door to an effective treatment.  Read More…

Carlsbad Award Program Honors the Achievement
CARLSBAD September 23, 2014 — Percepta Associates Inc has been selected for the 2014 Best of Carlsbad Award in the Market Researcher category by the Carlsbad Award Program.
Each year, the Carlsbad Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies…

On February 10th, 2014 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released details about its fiscal mandates for the year. President Obama signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act (Public Law 113-76) into law on January 17th 2014, ensuring funding to NIH for the fiscal year ending September 30th, 2014.

The Act provides NIH with a budget of $30.15 billion, which is an increase…

With the explosion of biological data now available as a direct result of genome sequencing initiatives, use of commercial gene synthesis and pre-designed synthetic biology tools is becoming increasingly popular. We wanted to understand how molecular cloners feel about using synthetic biology tools as replacements for in-house methods such as cloning. So, in December 2013, we polled users of…

In October 2013, we polled users of protein analysis products in the U.S. to understand how, if at all, budget sequestration has affected their lab’s purchase of protein analysis products.  Results reveal that both non-profit and for-profit researchers are impacted by budget sequestration as approximately 56% of non-profit and 29% of for-profit respondents indicated budget sequestration has definitely affected…

In places where controlling tuberculosis (TB) is a concern, there is an urgent need for simple, inexpensive diagnostics that can identify active TB, particularly in the context of HIV infection. In a recent paper (PLoS Medicine, October 22, 2013), researchers discovered that a unique RNA transcriptional signature found in whole blood could distinguish TB from other diseases including HIV…

During drug development, it’s critical to monitor cellular responses to promising compounds, which includes keeping tabs on the activities of various gene promoters. Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies report a new method to accomplish that, using the advanced gene expression analysis method CAGE followed by single-molecule sequencing.

Click to enlarge. Original image…

What are the top bioinformatics concerns for researchers that perform next-generation sequencing? We wanted to understand their “top of mind” concerns and not prompt users with a list of potential answers from which to choose.  So, we asked over 400 scientists in government, private, commercial and academic labs in the United States, all involved in performing next generation sequencing,…

We set out to understand, at a top level, which life science suppliers are recognized in the industry for having the most flexible pricing options, for reagents and for instruments.  The questions posed to North American, European and Chinese audiences were:

Q. Which life science reagent supplier has the most flexible pricing options?

Q. Which life science instrument supplier…