Broad cuts 24 genomics staff

The Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard laid off 24 of its MIT employees last week, citing an upgrade to next-generation, high-throughput, genome sequencing technologies that made those jobs obsolete. "It's purely related to changes in technology," Nicole Davis, a Broad Institute spokesperson, told __The Scientist__, and not a result of a dwindling endowment in the weakened economy. The linkurl:Broad,;http://www.broad.mit.edu/ which was founded in 2003 with a $100 million gift by Eli and Edythe Broad (who have since donated $500 million more), wrote in a statement that "this move is unrelated to the recent widespread economic problems: It is entirely a reflection of the changes in DNA sequencing technologies, which require us to invest our sequencing resources in different ways." The action mirrors a similar round of cuts at the linkurl:J. Craig Venter Institute,;http://www.jcvi.org/ in Rockville, Maryland, which eliminated 29 sequencing staff jobs in December after...