NEW YORK, Jan 23 – Biobase, the Braunschweig, Germany-based developer of the Transfac database of transcription factors, is now planning to add SNP gene regulation data to its repertoire, the company said Tuesday.
“Up until now, no one has investigated the SNP raw data with regard to transcription factors. We can now offer new information on this hot topic,” said CEO Holger Karas in a statement.
Biobase will identify the SNP transcription factors -- or molecules responsible for turning genes on or off -- by analyzing data obtained by the SNP Consortium. The privately funded consortium is expected to continue through 2001, making new data publicly available every three months.
Transfac contains just under 24,000 different transcription factors, including about 4,000 profiles of transcription factors and 10,000 descriptions of their specific DNA binding sites. Biobase also recently announced three upcoming product offerings: PathoDB, a database of mutated transcription factor binding sites; S/Mart DB, a database of scaffold or matrix attached regions; and Transpath, a database that documents signal transduction pathways involved in the regulation of transcription factors.
Biobase recently signed Aventis Pharma and Organon, a subsidiary of Akzo Nobel, as subscribers to Transfac.