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prognosticators

A new way to predict breast cancer survival

A researcher who used to work in digital television has just led a team of Columbia University engineers to win the Sage Bionetworks / DREAM Breast Cancer Prognosis Challenge.

Dimitris Anastassiou, who is now a systems biologist (meaning he investigates interactions within biological systems), reports in the April 17 issue of Science Translational Medicine that his team's winning computation model is extremely predictive of breast cancer survival.

Before the challenge, Anastassiou and his team identified what they call "attractor metagenes," which are genetic signatures expressed in almost the exact same way across many types of cancer. Their new … Read more

Apple shifting to all-flash iPods?

By the end of this year, Apple could be planning to shift all of its iPods over to flash memory storage, according to an analyst report.

The report, from Prudential Equity Group analyst Jesse Tortora, was spotted by AppleInsider. Tortora believes that by late 2007 Apple could shift the video iPods over to flash memory as part of a redesign of the product. The iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle already use flash memory.

Flash memory has many advantages. It has no moving parts, unlike hard drives that can fail from repeated jostling or falls, and it allows Apple to make … Read more