FOSTER CITY, Calif.--The value of the bioinformatics market could exceed $1.5 billion by 2005, but its compound annual growth rate is expected to decline as segments of the market become saturated, according to a new study, "Bioinformatics, a Strategic Business Analysis," published by

HINXTON, UK--The Pfam Consortium, a group of researchers at the Sanger Centre and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has released Pfam version 3.3, an upgrade to the Pfam database. Pfam (http://www.

BETHESDA, Md.--The National Center for Biotechnology Information at the National Library of Medicine here has made available a list of completed and ongoing microbial genome sequencing projects.

OXFORD, UK--Oxford GlycoSciences last month appointed Andrew Lyall to the position of chief information officer. Lyall formerly led research efforts in bioinformatics at Glaxo Wellcome as its head of advanced technology and informatics.

CAMBRIDGE, UK--Synomics, a pharmaceutical research informatics company launched in 1998, announced the formation of its scientific advisory board. Paolo Zanella, director of strategic and international relations at Synomics, will chair the board.

Bethesda, Md.--The National Human Genome Research Institute is seeking to establish a mouse genome sequencing network that will support mapping and sequencing the mouse genome.

REHOVOT, Israel--The Weizmann Institute's genome center and bioinformatics unit here last month released version 2.7 of GeneCards (http://bioinfo. weizmann.ac.il/cards/).

GAITHERSBURG, Md.--Gene Logic CEO Michael Brennan met with BioInform recently to talk about the rapid growth experienced by his company, which sells proprietary genomic databases and technologies.

NEW YORK--Two bioinformatics firms completed private placements last month. Pangea Systems, a privately held provider of bioinformatics software based in Oakland, Calif., completed its Series C private financing for $15 million on December 14. The following day, Compugen, of Tel Aviv and Woburn, Mass., announced that it had completed a $15 million equity private placement.

KOHALA COAST, Hawaii-- The Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing is expected to draw nearly 250 delegates here January 4-9. Organizers of the conference, which is in its fourth year and has grown 25 percent in attendance since last year, said the meeting has become a leading forum for the publication and discussion of emerging issues in biocomputing.

MADISON, Wisc.--Oxford Molecular Group s $20 million purchase of Genetics Computer Group (GCG) here last year not only gave Oxford entrée into the business of providing informatics for drug development, it ensured the longevity of one of the oldest bioinformatics companies around, executives from both firms told BioInform.

BONN--The Center of Advanced European Studies and Research, a major new interdisciplinary research facility scheduled to be built here, will focus on promising technologies of the future, including bioinformatics.

COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y.--Bioinformatics software provider Oxford Molecular Group and Glaxo Wellcome have unveiled a new, jointly developed Java-based bioinformatics software library on the worldwide web.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Incyte Pharmaceuticals has signed a multiyear genomic database partnership that will provide Glaxo Wellcome with access to specific LifeSeq database products in exchange for annual access fees, and could yield royalty payments to Incyte from sales of products developed with

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. has announced that it will make its bioinformatics services, along with other critical research, technology, and automation functions, available to its newly announced subsidiary, Millennium BioTherapeutics Inc.

SAN DIEGO--Axiom Biotech nolo gies has announced plans to use its proprietary High-Throughput Pharmacological Screening (HT-PS) system technology as a platform to develop a new bioinformatics resource, the PharmaProfile database.

BOSTON--Harvard Medical School has signed a $16 million, five-year research alliance with the pharmaceutical company Hoechst Marion Roussel involving bioinformatics and cell function.

CLEVELAND--NetGenics Inc. has completed $6.5 million in financing for Synergy, the company's initial bioinformatics software product.

SEATTLE--ZymoGenetics Inc. has begun construction of a new 46,000-square-foot, $12 million R&D facility located adjacent to the company's headquarters.

BALTIMORE--A new drug discovery and development company here, Lion Pharmaceuticals Inc., was officially launched earlier this month to capitalize on molecular and genomic inventions emerging from major research universities.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Incyte Pharmaceuticals has signed a deal to use internet-related data distribution technology from Tibco to provide Incyte's genomic database products to clients. Tibco's information integration middleware began with financial trading floor applications and is now ex

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--Duke University researcher Allen Roses has been named director of Glaxo Wellcome's $48 million international genetics program. He will be based in the company's U.S. headquarters here and continue working at Duke as an adjunct professor.

CLEVELAND--NetGenics Inc. here has signed a deal with Incyte Pharmaceuticals to link the forthcoming Synergy software package to Incyte's database software in order to create a more comprehensive software product suite for the pharmaceutical desktop.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Cubist Pharmaceutical Inc. here has taken a $1 million minority position in Novalon Pharmaceutical Corp. and will provide the Chapel Hill, N.C., startup with research support, including bioinformatics help.

CAMBRIDGE, U.K.--Reflecting the "the sharpened focus in its priority fields of molecular biology and genome bioinformatics," the peer-reviewed journal Computer Applications in the Biosciences (CABIOS) has announced that it will change its name to Bioinformatics beginning in 1998.