At the pace of today’s news, it can be hard to maintain perspective on what all the important stories are. Sure, the iPad is dominating headlines today, but remember when Google bought Picnik just a month ago? That deal is still resonating in the startup community. What’s more, headlines fly off the page so fast that not everyone can catch them the first time. Luke and I wanted to find a way to help readers discover more of the stuff we’ve been busily producing for the past few months.

The first quarter of 2010 is in the books. So we thought it would be fun and useful to recap our favorite stories of the year so far—everything from Alder to Z2Live, with Amazon, Apple, Cell Therapeutics, Dendreon, and Microsoft in between. These were sometimes our most popular pieces, but not always. In every case, they highlight the kind of in-depth analysis and exclusive reporting that we are bringing to bear on the Seattle-area innovation community. Enjoy.

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Greg’s Top 10 technology stories:

Cowboys Like Us: Investor Nick Hanauer on How to Think About Breakthroughs in Business and Society (Part 1)

Nick Hanauer, a “High-Functioning Contrarian,” on How to Think About Breakthroughs in Business and Society (Part 2)

Bill Gates’s Nuclear Miracle? John Gilleland Says TerraPower Needs Discipline, Not Divine Intervention

Picnik CEO on Getting Bought by Google, and How It Affects Startups and Consumers

How Amazon Innovates: Lessons in Strategy for Microsoft and Others

How to Win the Future of Social Mobile Gaming: The Z2Live Story

The Apple iPad’s Impact on Mobile, Gaming, and E-Books: Local Techies and Startups React

Friend or Foe: How Apple Is Forcing Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and AT&T to Raise Their Game

MIT MBA Students: Amazon, Google, and T-Mobile Are Hiring, Expedia Isn’t; Microsoft “Super Interesting,” Apple Is “Sterile”

Stephen Wolfram Talks Bing Partnership, Software Strategy, and the Future of Knowledge Computing

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Luke’s Top 10 biotech and life sciences stories:

The Dendreon Alumni: Where Are They Now?

Joe Eichinger, Top Medical Device Entrepreneur and UW Volunteer, Dies From Cancer

Cell Therapeutics Offers Bigger Cash Bonuses for 2009 While Stock Languishes

Ekos, Swedish Aim to Shake Up Stroke Treatment with Ultrasound Brain Clot Buster

Geospiza Runs in the Black as Scientists Turn to Software to Help Crunch Genomes

Microsoft Fleshes Out Health-IT Portfolio, Waits (and Waits) for Market to Materialize

Medical Device Entrepreneurs Converge on Wings, a New Angel Investing Network

Dendreon’s New Operations Man, Hans Bishop, Aims to Keep Provenge Trains Running on Time

Halosource Nails Down $10M for Global Expansion of Water Purifying Technology

Alder Rises from Ashes of Layoffs, Overcomes Skeptics to Become Seattle Biotech Force

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Healthcare deals are going one way, tech deals another. That’s my read from the past week in the Northwest, where we’ve seen some of the biggest biotech deals around, even as a prominent Seattle tech venture firm (and software financings in general) head south.

—Bothell, WA-based Alder Biopharmaceuticals scored one of the biggest biotech partnerships of the year, as Luke reported today. The company has formed a collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) to develop Alder’s experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug, ALD518, and the deal could be worth more than $1 billion. In exchange for granting Bristol a worldwide exclusive license to develop ALD518 for all uses except cancer, Alder will get $85 million upfront, as much as $764 million in development and regulatory milestone payments, sales-related milestone payments that could exceed $200 million, and royalties on product sales.

—I took a look at the venture and debt financings for Washington companies last month (and the previous two months), and concluded that large investments in software startups aren’t coming back anytime soon. The data, courtesy of New York-based ChubbyBrain, shows most of the money is in healthcare and life sciences.

—Kirkland, WA-based Clearwire has secured an additional investment of $1.5 billion from Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Intel, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Google, a previous investor, is not participating in the round. The money will support Clearwire’s (NASDAQ: CLWR) deployment of its WiMax broadband network.

—Verathon, a Bothell, WA-based maker of ultrasound technology, has been acquired by Sarasota, FL-based Roper Industries (NYSE: ROP) as part of a pair of transactions worth a combined $356 million, as Luke reported. The price of Verathon’s sale by itself was not announced. The company develops a 3-D diagnostic imaging tool that helps doctors diagnose bladder disorders.

—One of Seattle’s most prominent tech VC firms will not be raising another fund or making new investments. Len Jordan of Frazier Technology Ventures confirmed the news as he announced he’s moving to Madrona Venture Group at the beginning of next year.

—Bellevue, WA-based Light Sciences Oncology has lined up $35 million in follow-up financing to develop its drug-device treatment for cancer, as Luke reported. The investors weren’t disclosed, but the deal gives Light Sciences the right to access a $23.3 million line of credit, and $11.8 million more if investors choose to exercise warrants. The company raised $40 million from undisclosed VCs last year.

—Seattle startup Movaya Wireless has been acquired by Digby, a mobile commerce firm based in Austin, TX, for an undisclosed price. Movaya was founded in 2006 by Phil Yerkes and Stanley Wang, and focuses on making digital goods storefront applications for the iPhone, Android, and mobile Web platforms. The company’s development team in China will serve as the basis for Digby’s operations in Asia.

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There wasn’t a lot of headline news in Seattle biotech in the last week, but we found several interesting features that offer previews of what’s coming in the worlds of new drugs and devices.

–I learned about a small nonprofit in the Tri-Cities that has come up with a simple, elegant way to fix broken bones in the developing world without using expensive equipment. The organization, called Sign, has caught the eye of Seattle-based PATH, the global health organization, which has ideas for bringing this idea to the world stage.

–Medical device companies often fly below the radar, and we found one in our backyard that is developing artificial spine implants. Archus Orthopedics could do for the spine what orthopedists have been doing for years with modern hip and knee replacements.

–The former No. 2 executive at Icos, Gary Wilcox, re-emerged on the biotech scene last week in a big way, as chairman and CEO of Cocrystal Discovery, an antiviral drugmaker that has raised $10 million from an investment fund led by billionaire entrepreneur Phillip Frost. Memorable quote from the 61-year-old Wilcox: “I feel like I’m 21 again.”

–I sat down with Lee Huntsman, the director of Washington’s Life Sciences Discovery Fund for an in-depth interview about how this 10-year, $350 million program intends to make an impact on the local biotech sector. Readers are free to draw their own conclusions, but here’s his take on why Washington’s approach stacks up fairly well with the big boys from California and Massachusetts.

–Alder Biopharmaceuticals gave me the inside scoop on how it plans to take on Roche with a “fast-follower” antibody drug for rheumatoid arthritis. It’s an exciting time at Alder—we’ll know within a year if this drug is a serious threat to one of the world’s biggest pharma players.

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Alder Biopharmaceuticals will find out next year whether it has what it takes to beat Roche, one of the world’s pharmaceutical giants. Alder, the Bothell, WA biotech company, is beginning a well-controlled clinical trial this month that will give it a clear sense of whether it has a drug for rheumatoid arthritis that is better than Roche’s, with the added advantage of being faster and cheaper to make.

Alder doesn’t do much to blow its own horn, so I was surprised to learn from CEO Randy Schatzman how fast it has progressed in the past year. Schatzman is a veteran scientist formerly of Roche and Celltech’s R&D operation in Bothell. Alder, founded in 2004 after Celltech closed its doors in Washington, is now one of the better-financed development-stage biotechs in Seattle. It pulled in a $40 million Series C round in January from Delphi Ventures, TPG Biotech, Sevin Rosen Funds, Ventures West, HIG Ventures, and WRF Capital.

Those investors are betting that Alder has a “fast follower” that might trump a rheumatoid arthritis drug approaching the market from Roche, called Actemra. The Basel, Switzerland-based drugmaker is currently awaiting FDA approval for the product. It’s designed to block an inflammatory molecule called IL-6 that attacks joints in rheumatoid arthritis patients, unlike other biotech drugs like Amgen’s Enbrel that hit a different target called TNF. An estimated 1.3 million adults in the U.S. have the painful joint disease, and the market for treatments is already worth an estimated $10 billion a year, according to IMS Health. So Alder’s first attempt at developing a new drug is really a swing for the fence.

“Our philosophy is about aiming for a best-in-class antibody as opposed to first-in-class,” Schatzman says. “Doctors will prescribe the best drug for their patients. You beat people with a better drug, not with a me-too drug.” To put it more succinctly, “it’s an improved fast-follower strategy.”

So what does that mean? Alder has engineered the drug, called ALD518, to block the same IL-6 molecules, but with a number of advantages over Actemra, Schatzman says. The Alder drug can last longer in the bloodstream, so it can be injected less frequently, possibly as little as three or four times a year instead of once a month, he says. It is made to be given intravenously or in a straightforward injection under the skin, while Actemra is IV only, Schatzman says. Alder can also give its treatment in one-tenth the dose because it’s more potent, meaning that it’s cheaper to manufacture. And, Alder’s drug is designed to snip off a carbohydrate chain that hangs off the genetically engineered antibody, which may help it avoid causing rare, but potentially dangerous allergic reactions during infusion, Schatzman says.

Alder does this through a technology that turns yeast cells into mini-factories for antibody drugs, instead of the standard Chinese hamster ovary cells, to better mimic the human environment. Since yeast is a cheap raw material, and the cells divide much faster than the hamster cells, drugs made this way could cut manufacturing costs to a fraction of what it takes to make big sellers like Enbrel or Genentech’s Avastin, Schatzman says. The trick, which Alder will need to continue to prove works in clinical trials, is that yeast-derived antibodies behave the same way in the body as those from hamster cells, or at least aren’t associated with any unusual side effects. (The company also had to prove that it could take small-scale batches of yeast antibodies and make them in large volumes, which it has done, Schatzman says.)

Once Schatzman explained the design of the next experiment, I could see why he needed to raise $40 million. The study of ALD518 for rheumatoid arthritis patients will enroll 120 patients, randomly assigned to drug or placebo, and measure the standard scores on joint pain and swelling for 24 weeks—the same test other drugs have passed in their pivotal trials—which isn’t cheap. If this trial shows positive results in mid-2009, then Alder will have to find a large drugmaker as a partner on the ensuing Phase III trial, which will need to enroll thousands of patients to satisfy FDA’s safety demands on rheumatoid arthritis drugs, Schatzman says. It will probably be 2013 before the drug could reach the market, he adds.

Still, Alder isn’t planning to give away the entire store in a pharmaceutical alliance. The company plans to keep rights to itself with ALD518 for use against cancer. Although anti-cancer medicines traditionally are measured by their ability to shrink tumors or prolong life, Schatzman says his drug could take a different tack, showing benefits for quality of life for cancer patients. Research shows that many tumors pump out lots of IL-6 inflammatory molecules, which contributes to fatigue, weight loss, muscle loss, and generally feeling miserable. The reasoning is that if ALD518 can block that molecule, the patients should not only feel better, but they could be sturdy enough for more chemotherapy, which could help them live longer, he says. That hypothesis is also being put to the test in a 120-patient, randomized clinical trial that should provide an answer on whether it can help patients with lung cancer, he says.

“These Phase II trials will drive value for us if we’re successful,” Schatzman says. “Then we’ll raise more money.”

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