genetics

Vertex Pharmaceutical shares soared 15% Wednesday as Wall Street cheered the results of a late-stage study of its new cystic fibrosis drug, an experimental treatment that targets the underlying cause of the disease rather than just its symptoms.

Pfizer's cancer drug crizotinib was able to shrink tumors of non-small-cell lung cancer patients whose tumors carried a specific genetic mutation that fuses two genes. The early-stage study results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

M&A-watchers see a buyout happening soon in a secluded sector of biotech: DNA sequencing and genetic analysis. One potential buyer is big player Illumina, and one potential buyout target is Wafergen Bio-Systems, whose SmartChip technology is a game-changer.

District Judge Robert Sweet has invalidated patents Myriad Genetics holds on naturally occurring snippets of human DNA. At issue are genetic tests for breast and ovarian cancer, but the ruling could upend the whole biotech industry -- if it survives appeals.

Doctors and environmental scientists are growing more concerned that chemicals found in many household cleaning supplies, such as floor cleaners and glass cleaners, are behind the ongoing increase in breast cancer cases in the U.S. Anecdotal evidence from some of the latest epidemiological data suggests that younger women (and a growing number of men) are contracting the cancer.

Medco Health Solutions's purchase of DNA Direct may be small in size but big in potential. It bolsters the pharmacy benefits manager's footprint in personalized medicine, a fast-growing field that uses a patient's genetic data to better target health-care treatments.

The seeds of Monsanto Company (MON) are everywhere in the typical American diet; in those corn chips, corn flakes and soy milk, yes, but also in the yogurt, hamburger and sausage McMuffin; in the soda, candy bars, barbecue sauce and sandwich bread. A new investigative report by the Associated...

America is already pretty smitten with the First Pooch, but now scientists have a better understanding of what makes Bo Obama so darn cute. The Portuguese Water Dog has variations in three key genes that give the canine and other dogs like him his curly tuxedo coat as well as his "furnishings," or...