Helicos slashes staff in half in restructuring

Starved of cash, Cambridge, MA-based Helicos BioSciences has cut its work force in half, laying off 40 people as it changes its focus to the diagnostics side of the business. The move earned a bit of respect on Wall Street, where its battered shares climbed 11 percent--to 62 cents--in after-hours trading. Helicos says in a release that half of the 40 staffers staying on the payroll are being supported by NIH funding for the company's work on DNA and RNA single molecule sequencing...