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To avoid duplication of effort, slow adoption and inefficiency in development, those developing biological standards need to communicate more with each other, attract help from experts in the ontology/standards communities and keep focused on needs of users.
The discovery of traces of unapproved genetically modified rice in United States exports has once again put the spotlight on biotech companies' failure to fully contain field trials and on governments' inability to keep the food supply free of unapproved traits.
Contrary to conventional thinking, there are compelling reasons for investors to consider early-stage life science ventures, especially in the context of a maturing biotech business 'ecosystem'.
An analysis of 105 mergers among small UK biotech companies over a 10-year period shows that the improvement of shareholder positions, rather than product pipelines or business opportunities, is the main motivation for such transactions.
Implementation of the Minimal Information About a Microarray Experiment document provides several lessons for similar ongoing initiatives in other fields.