NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) — Ingenuity Systems and Sigma-Aldrich plan to co-develop a tailored search capability based on Ingenuity’s database of biological networks with the aim of expanding Sigma customers’ web-based shopping options, Sigma said today.
Specifically, the deal calls for Sigma-Aldrich to “leverage Ingenuity's knowledge base and integrate its search technology into Sigma-Aldrich's life science product portfolio,” Sigma said
Ingenuity’s database is developed from “millions of expert curated relationships among proteins, genes, complexes, cells, tissues, drugs and diseases,” Sigma said.
Sigma said the new search capability will be freely available to researchers and will allow them to locate Sigma-Aldrich products that are relevant to their research and to understand these products "in a content-rich environment of highly relevant biological and chemical relationships.”
Sigma said the tool will extend its current search capability, which allows customers to match gene information to thousands of its products, “to much broader biological queries around disease, function, and pathways.”
Ingenuity CEO Jake Leschly said Sigma’s interest in expanding its web-based search options reflects an “increasing emphasis on a systems view of biology” that requires scientists to design experiments based on a more complete and dynamic understanding of biology.
Financial terms of the agreement were not released.