Biden Unveils Open-Access Database To Advance Cancer Research (go.com) 42
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ABC News: Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a public database for clinical data on cancer on Monday that aims to help researchers and doctors better tailor new treatments to individuals. Overseen by the National Cancer Institute, the Genomic Data Commons starts with genomic and clinical data for 12,000 patients. The system is designed to increase sharing of information about the gene sequences of tumors and how patients with those tumors responded to specific treatments. "The information is scattered among different government and academic repositories. Most of it is out of the reach of scientists," Biden said. "We're bringing it into one space." Though easily searchable, the database includes protections for privacy and security, Biden said. He urged cancer experts gathered in Chicago to "upload your raw genomic data" to the system for use by fellow researchers. "All of you know it's the right thing to do," Biden said. "It's the quickest way for us to move forward. And it's not technically hard for us to do it." You can read the key features of the GDC via The White House here.
No, don't use an Access database for this!!! (Score:1)
What? Oh, never mind.
Re:If Biden had won the Democratic nomination (Score:4, Insightful)
Off topic but I'll bite...
If we had a better voting system, then the party primaries wouldn't really matter all that much. There would be no more voting for the person most likely to beat the guy you hate most on the other side. Instead of literally only having the choice of voting against HRC or Trump, we might actually get to choose a candidate we want.
The problem isn't the candidates. It's the system that inevitably pits these awful candidates against each other as the only choice.
http://www.cgpgrey.com/politic... [cgpgrey.com]
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A couple of things:
The Party primaries happened because too many people complained about the candidates from each Party being picked in "smoke-filled rooms" by Party bigwigs.
So, the Party bigwigs pulled one of the biggest scams in history by convincing the States to pay for the primaries.
Note that the Primaries, since they're entirely internal concerns of the Parties should NOT be paid for by the taxpayers, no
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As to choosing a candidate you want, maybe if more people actually tried voting for the candidate they wanted rather than voting against the candidate they dislike the most, we'd all be better off.
Agreed, but the fact that this doesn't happen is a direct consequence of our voting system. It's something that probably couldn't change even if a majority of people want to change it, because plurality voting (first-past-the-post) inevitably ends in a two party system.
The link I posted is a set of videos that outline the problems, and a potential solution or two (out of many possible solutions).
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Note that the Primaries, since they're entirely internal concerns of the Parties should NOT be paid for by the taxpayers,
The voters are taxpayers. It's a vote dealing with elections of public officials. I think primaries being part of the normal voting processes is fine. There are almost always other things on the primary ballots, such as bond levies, school board elections, and initiatives, so the cost is pretty well sunk anyway.
nor should people who are not Party members be involved in them (yes, open primaries are a very bad idea -
I could not agree more.
The "primary system" is not the cause of bad candidates. The cause is that being a politician has become a job with fewer positives than "used car salesman", and perhaps even
got tinfoil hat (Score:1)
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Oh no, here come all the "cannabis cures cancer" nutcases
Cannabis doesn't directly cure cancer, but it can suppress the severe nausea caused by many chemotherapy drugs, which means more patients complete the course, which means more of them recover and survive.
So far, the only downsides to cannabis legalization have been prison guard layoffs, and the extra burden on politicians that have to figure out how to spend all the money from dope sales taxes.
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So far, the only downsides to cannabis legalization have been prison guard layoffs,
Well, there are concerns about edibles and the dosages that people consume without realizing it. And turning "candy" into "drugs", thus creating issues for young people. (Kinda like the old candy cigarettes that aren't sold much anymore.)
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>So far, the only downsides to cannabis legalization have been prison guard layoffs, and the extra burden on politicians that have to figure out how to spend all the money from dope sales taxes.
So the obvious solution is to use the dope sales taxes to fund employing the former prison guards in public works projects ?
How do I sue (Score:1)
.. for releasing my private genomic data? My samples were supposed to be protected!
Thanks, for all the DNA . . . (Score:1)
Your Honorable Mr. Biden,
We would like to thank you for your donation to our DNA database project! This has enabled us to refute claims, that your DNA could be found in the mouths of Oxford University pigs.
Unfortunately, further analysis of your DNA data has proved that you are, in fact, John Wilkes Booth, the guy who shot Abraham Lincoln, or somebody. Of course, we would all like to see a peaceful solution to this problem. But if you want to go down in a hail of bullets . . . I can recommend a Vodafone
as usual (Score:1)
Insert here routine complaint that the federal government has no delegated power to fund or perform medical research.
Re:as usual (Score:4, Insightful)
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yeah, that too!
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The right would find a way to make pro-cancer sound like "freedom"... who would have thought.
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Classy DNA (Score:5, Funny)
When I'm president, we're going to have magnificent databases. The best databases, not loser databases like Biden's. Just tremendous, tremendous databases. We'll make Latvia pay for it, and there won't be any Mexican DNA in that database either, until we can figure out what's going on. We're going to have DNA that'll make your head spin.
So how private are those patients' records? (Score:1)
Seems like we just went through a widely-applauded act to block access to patient records in the name of privacy (HIPAA). National database of cancer patients -- what could possibly go wrong? (hint, the 'national database' of government employees' and contractors' clearance backgrounds, including financial information, criminal history if any, credit cards, etc. got breached last year, courtesy of Office of Personnel Management and their antiquated security measures). I think patient privacy was far bet
Whatever Obama does (Score:3)
rightwingers rapidly assemble around the opposite - even for ideas they originally proposed.
Mmm... *grabs popcorn*, I am looking forward to watching the republicans become pro-cancer. I can't imagine what the arguments will look like but I bet they'll include the phrase "will of God" at least 50 times.
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And I found it... the horror of the federal government having a database of DNA... because spying on the dying is totally something they would care about, and somehow ignoring the fact that a federal database of DNA has been around for decades that IS actually used for law enforcement purposes and administered by the FBI. ... except that there was that major scandal last year when it turns out FBI tec
Oh but that once can't possibly be abused right, seeing as it was created under a republican administration.
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Re: Whatever Obama does (Score:2)
Why am I an asshole ? I support this idea. 8 supported it even though I had no knowledge of Biden's son dying of cancer ?
I just know what the rabid right has been like and they already proved me right. The thread is filled with people declaring the horror of letting the federal government have a DNA database. Nevermind that they have had one for years.
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Standardization (Score:2)