NLM Seeks Feedback on Biomedical Informatics Challenges
The National Library of Medicine is looking for responses to the question, "What are the major informatics research challenges in biomedicine today?" according to a request for information that it issued last week.
The RFI, "Advanced Informatics for Biomedicine," is step in NLM's plan to issue a call for proposals that address a "highly selective set of informatics problems of fundamental importance to biomedicine."
NLM said it is soliciting responses from the informatics, computer science, information science, and engineering communities, and is particularly interested in research challenges that are "significant to scientific discovery and health outcomes; difficult, but approachable; relatively unexplored or untested; [and] framed at a useful level of abstraction."
Responses of 1-2 pages should be sent to Milton Corn ([email protected]) by February 28.
The complete RFI is available at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-LM-06-001.html.
Four More Companies Join SciTegic's ISV Partner Program
SciTegic said this week that ACD/Labs, Bio-Rad, GeneGo, and Partek have joined its independent software vendor partner program, which will enable them to integrate their software products with the company's Pipeline Pilot workflow platform.
The four new companies brings the total number of ISVs in the program to 20.
As members of the program, joint customers of the ISVs and SciTegic will have access to particular software products from within the Pipeline Pilot framework. This includes ACD/Labs' PhysChem and Nomenclature batch software, Bio-Rad's KnowItAll ADME/tox software, GeneGo's pathway products, and Partek's statistical tools.
Merck Extends License for GeneGo's MetaCore and MetaBase
Merck has extended a global enterprise agreement for GeneGo's pathway informatics products for two years, GeneGo said this week.
Merck researchers will continue to use GeneGo's MetaCore data-mining suite and MetaBase database of mammalian protein interactions, signaling and metabolic pathways, bioactive compounds, and diseases.
MetaCore and MetaBase have been integrated with Merck's discovery informatics platform and are used in "multiple therapeutic areas," GeneGo said.
Avalon Licenses Ingenuity's IPA 3.0
Ingenuity Systems said this week that Avalon Pharmaceuticals has licensed its Ingenuity Pathways Analysis 3.0 software.
Avalon will use the software as part of a focused program to use gene disruption signatures to discover drugs against previously intractable targets, Ingenuity said.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
UCB Licenses Ariadne Genomics' PathwayStudio
UCB has licensed Ariadne Genomics' PathwayStudio software to support its early-stage drug discovery research, Ariadne said this week.
UCB will use the software as part of its target identification and biomarker research.
Financial details were not disclosed.
AstraZeneca to Use CambridgeSoft E-Notebook
CambridgeSoft said this week that AstraZeneca is deploying its E-Notebook software to 1,000 scientists across its organization.
The agreement follows a 10-site proof-of-concept project that incorporated the input of more than 100 research scientists, CambridgeSoft said.
Financial terms of the agreement were not provided.
Thermo Offers Informatics Services in China
Thermo Electron said this week that it is opening a customer support helpdesk for its informatics offerings in Shanghai, China.
"Thermo's commitment to China is growing, and we have responded with local representatives for sales, service, support, and marketing of our informatics products," said Dave Champagne, vice president and general manager of Thermo's Informatics business.
Thermo is providng local support in China for its SampleManager, Watson, Galileo, Nautilus, and Darwin LIMS products, as well as its Atlas CDS chromatography data system and Enterprise Pharmacology series.
Strand Integrates ChemAxon's JChem with Admetis Modeling Software
Strand Life Sciences said last week that it has integrated ChemAxon's JChem chemical-editing and visualization software with Admetis, its software package for predicting drug-relevant properties of molecules.
Strand said that it will launch the integrated product in "the early part" of the first quarter.
The inclusion of the JChem toolkit is expected to provide admetis with a "feature-rich, chemically aware data management and search framework," Strand said in a statement.