HyStar, MetaboliteTools, Investigator PWRHouse, ElDorado, Chip2Promoter, VEGA 1.4.1, SSAHA

Last week’s American Society for Mass Spectrometry conference in Orlando, Fl., served as the launching pad for several new protein informatics tools. Bruker Daltonics released version 2.3 of its HyStar hyphenation software for LC/MS and LC-NMR/MS applications, and also introduced MetaboliteTools software for automated drug metabolism identification. In addition, Genomic Solutions launched its new Investigator PWRHouse suite. The platform combines the sample tracking and 2D gel imaging features of Genomic Solutions’ Protein Warehouse with RADARS/MS, the mass spec analysis and storage package developed by ProteoMetrics, which Genomic Solutions acquired in February.

Genomatix of Munich, Germany, has released ElDorado, a database of information about regulatory pathways, and Chip2Promoter, software for automated promoter extraction and analysis for lists of gene IDs or accession numbers. Both tools are available for an introductory period through the company’s website, www.genomatix.de.

VEGA 1.4.1, a program to convert, manage, and visualize 3D structures, is available from Milan’s Istituto di Chimica Farmaceutica e Tossicologica at http://users.unimi.it/~ddl.

Version 3.0 of SSAHA, a software package for rapid searching of large DNA and protein databases, is now available from the informatics division of the Sanger Institute at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ssahausers/files or www.sanger.ac.uk/Software/analysis/SSAHA.