Genomics Blog

Twitter officially opened its Canadian office last week in Toronto. Right now it is mainly a marketing and advertising arm of Twitter but there is speculation around its future plans, and there is no doubt that it is a sign of the importance of Twitter in the Canadian marketplace.
In the 7 years since it started up, Twitter has attracted roughly 500 million users from around the world - though there are indications only about a third of them are really active users. That is a lot of activity to monitor and no, you're not expected to even try to keep track of it all or even a cross section.
The secret to using Twitter is to treat it like a network of business contacts or friend you stay in touch with because on Twitter it is who you know that counts You don't want to know or be known by celebrities, submerse, or those from an industry sector you never real with.  You do however, want to stay in touch with people, institutions, or companies that can offer fresh ideas, relevant links, or help you amplify your own posts. ( kind of like the old commercial where "you tell 2 friends and they tell 2 friends, and so on and so on and so on")

As @GenomeAlberta or @mikesgene we use Twitter to follow a number of accounts connected to science organization or institutions, biotech companies and science writers and journalists and in turn we have about 2,000 similar followers between the 2 account.  Once you get the hang of it all, it is manageable and useful.

Here is a very small sample of what we have seen come across our desktop over the last couple of weeks and we hope it will give you an idea of what a Twitter network has to say when it comes to science:

@bioethics.net      Hospitals want to test drug with no consent http://bit.ly/18Rq1se

@CIRMnews    Vampires and stem cell research; the public wants to know http://bit.ly/18xPXc7  #stemcells

@EricTopol      Geneticists Push for Global Data Sharing bit.ly/138FI72 #genomics @NatureNews by @Erika_Check Would be great to see MOOM take off.

@Genomethics    Attention The Times: Prince William's DNA is not a toy tvia @ConversationUK http://theconversation.com/attention-the-times-prince-williams-dna-is-not-a-toy-15216

@gmopundit   Scientific reasoning indicates that Carman et al may have confirmed - yet again -- that #GMO safer than non-GM http://bit.ly/11eTzaJ

@HopkinsMedicine   Federal support for the Human #Genome Project has added nearly $1T to US economy, says new report from @UMR4NIH http://bit.ly/170uSXq

@jenlynndewey    Food economist @JaysonLusk talks about the future of our food. And why we should embrace modern technologies! #gmos http://youtu.be/e1A3mdpElgg

@mark_lynas    My blogpost on #GMO-fed pigs now updated, + useful expert comments below the line: http://www.marklynas.org/2013/06/gmo-pigs-study-more-junk-science/   (& some less expert!)

@RebeccaSkloot    I love it when science says good things about coffee. "This Is Your Brain on Coffee"  http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/well/2013/06/06/this-is-your-brain-on-coffee/

@ScienceBorealis  Each day we highlight a Cdn #sciblogger (in no particular order). Sourced from our 'database' http://bit.ly/103xm1m , email to join #cancomm

@SMCCanada    http://ow.ly/lJs3u   Researchers offer new model for science publishing....a few Canadians have signed as well.

@StemCellNetwork   We've got our #ISSCR2013 Day 2 highlights up on @SignalsBlog now, check it out! http://www.signalsblog.ca/view-from-the-floor-isscr2013-day-2/  #stemcell

@TheDNAExchange    New post by Bob Resta on the impact of the Angelina Jolie #BRCA story on his patient count: Star Power http://wp.me/pvgUP-142

@thinkgenome    Comparative Epigenome Studies Can Provide Insight into … The epigenome is a dynamic layer of information... http://bit.ly/12m0uUo

@UAlberta  #UAlberta leads country in CFI research funding with 27 projects totalling $5.7M.   #cdnpse  http://news.ualberta.ca/newsarticles/2013/june/build-it-and-they-will-come

And of course behind all of these Twitter accounts are people and organizations:

Are you interested in science communication? Looking to be involved in a Canadian-focused science communication environment? Genome Alberta and Canadian Science Publishing have co-founded a new blogging network which will launch in the Fall of this year.

We’re calling it Science Borealis: Blogging from Canadian Perspectives and it will feature Canadian science bloggers covering science from astronomy to zoology and everything in between. Science Borealis will be a one-stop shop for finding Canadian science blogs, whether you’re looking for information to inform policy, connect with researchers in your field, write a term paper, or just want to learn about neat stuff.

We have the name, we’ve secured the scienceborealis.ca domain and now we’re searching for a logo that will be a unique and instantly recognizable symbol of the network, both here at home and around the world.  Yes, we’re shooting for the world because we think it is time Canada stood on its own in the global blogging arena. The logo will be used on our website and promotional material (print material, hats, etc.). The winning logo will be eye catching and original, taking a novel approach to graphically representing the Science Borealis name.

If you want to put your artistic and creative talents to work read on to find the details on what we are after:

The new GAPP ( Genomics Applications Partnership Program ) is a bit of a departure for Genome Canada and Canada's 6 Genome Centres because it emphasizing research being integrated into the Bioeconomy. The GAPP funding is directed at building stronger links between academic research and industry use. It is designed to encourage integration of genomics research into everyday use and one of the measures of success of the program will be what commercial entities, products, or future collaborations result from the initial funding.
GAPP is being kickstarted with $30 million from Genome Canada and with the required co-funding from applicants, will result in a $90 million investment in applied genomics across Canada.
A copy of the Investment Strategy and Guidelines is available for you to download.

In the meantime, here is Genome Canada President and CEO Pierre Meulien talking about the new funding program.

Originally developed for Hepatitis C research, the KMT Mouse has shown potential in other areas of disease research. The mouse has a 'humanized liver' and can be used in research to combat malaria, Hepatitis B, and other diseases. I talked with Svetlana Sapelnikova last year at BIO in Boston and she dropped by the BIO Buzz area again this year to give me an update on how her company KMT Hepatech is doing.
(KMT by the way is another University of Alberta spinoff company. I seem to be coming across them more often at BIO now.)

Here's my interview with her.

Malaysia is a country with a growing economy and one that is getting good reviews from sources such as the World Bank and Forbes Magazine. It is viewed as a safe place to do business with a stable economy and investment climate. It is also an economy that the government is using to build a strong and proactive biotechnology sector. Unlike many governments, the Malaysian Government has laid out a biotechnology policy and seems to have the political will to see it through.
Dr. Nazlee Kamal is the CEO of the Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation an agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and he was one of the more straightforward CEOs I talked with at BIO. He knows the potential the government is trying to sell and he knows is job is to maximize the economic return and the benefits to Malaysians even including giving a boost to the education system.

Here's the conversation I had with him yesterday.