HEIDELBERG--LION Bioscience has acquired an exclusive commercial license for Sequence Retrieval System technologyfrom the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). One of the most widely used database navigation tools in bioinformatics, the system will become the central technology in LION's Life Science Informatics program, the company stated. A new subsidiary of LION has been established in Cambridge, UK, to market and develop the technology, the company announced.
EMBL, based in Heidelberg with an outstation, the European Bioinformatics Institute, in Hinxton, UK, spent eight years developing the Sequence Retrieval System technology, a query and navigation system that unites numerous biological databases into a single interface and environment.
Scientists can use the system to make unique queries across hundreds of public and private biological data collections, integrating diverse data into the daily research decision-making process. The system has been installed in more than 40 commercial and 200 academic sites, a spokesman said. Under its agreement with EMBL, LION will continue to make the system freely available to academic research groups, while focusing efforts on customer support and further development.