Select Biosciences Genomics Research Asia 2012. Daejeon Convention Center (DCC), Daejeon, Republic of Korea, 13-14 November 2012.

Select Biosciences held its annual Genomics Research Asia 2012 Conference in the city of Daejeon, Republic of Korea, on 13-14 November 2012. This conference brought together an international roster of speakers and delegates primarily from Korea, but also from other parts of Asia, North America and Europe. The conference consisted of two tracks: first, RNAi, miRNA and epigenetics; and second, next-generation sequencing and advances in quantitative PCR.

Analysis of miRNA market trends reveals hotspots of research activity.

We have conducted an analysis of the miRNA research marketplace by evaluating the publication trends in the field. In this article, we present the results of our analysis which reveals that hotspots exist in terms of research activities in the miRNA space--these hotspots illustrate the areas in the miRNA research space where specific miRNAs have been extensively studied, and other areas that represent new territory. We frame these data into the context of areas of opportunity for miRNA content harvest versus segments of opportunity for the development of research tools.

Conference scene: Select Biosciences Epigenetics Europe 2010.

The field of epigenetics is now on a geometric rise, driven in a large part by the realization that modifiers of chromatin are key regulators of biological processes in vivo. The three major classes of epigenetic effectors are DNA methylation, histone post-translational modifications (such as acetylation, methylation or phosphorylation) and small noncoding RNAs (most notably microRNAs). In this article, I report from Select Biosciences Epigenetics Europe 2010 industry conference held on 14-15 September 2010 at The Burlington Hotel, Dublin, Ireland.

Stem cells Europe 2008.

The focus of this conference report is to highlight some of the key themes presented at this excellent annual conference hosted by Select Biosciences Ltd at the Hilton Amsterdam, which attracted a worldwide audience of more than 150 delegates. This 3-day conference comprised 2 days of presentations in the 'Research Track' and 1 day of presentations in the 'Business/Commercialization Track'. The research track of this conference focused on the following key topics: basic research in the stem cells space; understanding stem cell biology; pluripotency; characterization of different types of stem cells and their role in mediating regenerative medicine; stem cells in drug discovery and development activities; and cancer stem cells.

The second annual ion channel retreat.

Ion channels are a key therapeutic target class that are relatively unexplored. New technologies and tools are enabling the interrogation of this target class for drug discovery and development. We present a summary here of the Aurora Biomed-sponsored Ion Channel Retreat held in June 2004 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Market opportunity in computational proteomics.

The current exuberance on the potential of proteomics as a means to deploy the wealth of the human genome is expected to last into the coming years. Unlike the genome, a finite entity with a fixed number of base pairs of the genetic material, the proteome is "plastic", changing throughout growth and development and environmental stresses, as well as in pathological situations. Our proteomes change over time, and therefore there is no one proteome; the proteome is for practical purposes an infinite entity.