BioFocus, Oncodesign Strike Partnership

BioFocus DPI has partnered with the cancer drug candidate and biomarker company Oncodesign to offer an integrated service platform, Galapagos division BioFocus DPI said today.

The agreement will create a service that combines BioFocus DPI's target discovery and screening capabilities with Oncodesign's biomarker and pharmacological services to offer target validation and clinical candidate selection services, the company said.

BioFocus DPI offers gene-to-drug candidate discovery services, including in vitro and cell-based screening, chemogenomic and informatics offerings, storage, distribution, and other structural biology and medicinal chemistry services.

XTractor Premium - A Platform for discovery, knowledge sharing, analysis and modelling of published biomedical facts.

• The only Knowledgebase which provides "manually" annotated facts from PubMed on a weekly basis
  
• Innovative Features like Semantic Search, Concept Linking, Bibliographic search, Save, Export and Visualize
  
• Only Knowledgebase with daily updations from PubMed
  
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XTractor Premium surpasses 200,000 mark of Expert Annotated PubMed Facts

Indian Life Sciences Informatics Company, Molecular Connections announced today, that their XTractor Premium platform surpasses 200,000 "Expert" annotated facts from PubMed.

XTractor Premium – is a platform for discovery, analysis and modeling of published biomedical facts. The application also comes with - XTractor Premium Knowledgebase - the only knowledgebase, which provides "Expert" annotated facts from PubMed on a daily basis. The XTractor Premium Knowledgebase now has more than 202,847 relationships on proteins, drugs, biological process and diseases and is ever growing with more than 600 relationships being added every single day. XTractor provides manually categorized updates on the latest published facts from PubMed for more than 20 categories which include : Biomarkers, clinical trials, dosage, pathways, toxicology, RNAi studies, mutations, knockouts, diseases mechanisms, protein- drug relationships and much more.

Expert Annotated Facts make XTractor Premium a High Quality Knowledgebase and the vast coverage of all biological entities wrapped with in intuitive and analytical software allows researchers more time for science and eliminates the need to consult BioIT experts.

The entities are out linked to over 30 different public databases such as patent databases, wikipedia, clinical trials, and other protein/drug databases.

With XTractor Premium one can,

· Quickly access relevant, high quality expert annotated biomedical facts

· Understand multiple target preferences for a specific drug

· Track common gene polymorphisms across multiple diseases

· Understand Pharmacologic actions, protein interactions and toxicity studies of drugs

And for more, please visit the case study section.

About XTractor Premium

The Knowledgebase: XTractor knowledgebase currently contains 202,847 relationships on biomarkers, clinical trials, pathways, knockout studies, mutations, drug interactions, toxicity, pharmacokinetics, disease mechanisms. It is the Only Knowledgebase that gets updated everyday with manually annotated relationships from the latest PubMed publications and contains more than 856 Unique Drugs, 2569 Unique Diseases, 9286 Unique Proteins, and 2102 Unique Biological Processes. Hence in no time one gets to access one of the largest and the most current manually annotated datasets across the world.

To know more about the advantages of the XTractor Premium and to register for a free trial account and a webex demo please visit XTractor Premium portal www.xtractor.in/premium.

XTractor Premium - A Platform for discovery, knowledge sharing, analysis and modelling of published biomedical facts.

• The only Knowledgebase which provides "manually" annotated facts from PubMed on a weekly basis
  
• Innovative Features like Semantic Search, Concept Linking, Bibliographic search, Save, Export and Visualize
  
• Only Knowledgebase with daily updations from PubMed
  
• XTractor Premium now at an Special Introductory Offer. Subscribe now and save!
  
• Request for a Trial
  

List of Cheminformatics Companies & Institutions

• Accelrys
• ACD/Labs (Advanced Chemistry Development, Inc.)
• Afferent Systems Inc.
• Agilent Technologies
• Aureus Pharma
• Barnard Chemical Information Ltd. (John Barnard and Geoff Downs) SEE: digital chemistry
• Bio-Rad Laboratories
• BioReason
• BioSolveIT
• BlueObelisk.org
• Bruker Daltonics Inc.
• Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre
• CambridgeSoft Corporation
• CARB Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology (NIST/University of Maryland)
• Cengent Therapeutics (Genes to Leads). Acquired by Inncardio, Inc.
• Center for Molecular Modeling (NIH)
• Centre for Molecular and Biomolecular Informatics CMBI (formerly: CAOS/CAMM: Dutch National Center for Computer-Assisted Chemistry and Molecular Modelling)
• Cerep
• ChemAxon
• ChemDiv, Inc. (Chemical Diversity)
• Chemical Abstracts Service
• Chemical Computing Group, Inc.
• Chemical Simulations Group
• ChemInnovation Software
• ChemNavigator
• ChemSW (Chemistry Software for Windows, formerly: WindowChem)
• Chenomx Inc.
• CIS Chemical Information System
• CombiChem.net
• CompuChem
• Core Informatics
• CrossFire Beilstein
• CSA Cambridge Scientific Abstracts
• Daylight Chemical Information Systems
• Derwent (Thomson)
• Dialog (Thomson)
• digital chemistry (formerly BCI, Barnard Chemical Information)
• Drug Design Methodologies
• eduSoft (Glen E. Kellogg, Donald J. Abraham) (hint!, molconn-z, HASL)
• Eidogen-Sertanty
• Elsevier MDL
• European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL)
• FamilyGenetix (formerly, Cherwell Scientific) (Cyrillic, ModelMaker, Modelmanager)
• FIZ Chemie Berlin (Fachinformationszentrum Chemie GmbH)
• Fujitsu (CAChe)
• Gaussian
• GCC GenChemiCs (William J. (Bill) Welsh)
• gNova Scientific Software
• GridChem
• Hypercube, Inc.
• Iconix Pharmaceuticals
• IDBS
• Incyte
• InforSense (ChemSense, InforSense KDE)
• Inpharmatica Ltd. (Biopendium, Chematica)
• Invitrogen (Vector NTI)
• IOS Improved Outcomes Software (GeneLinker)
• ISI Web of Knowledge (Thomson Scientific)
• Jubilant Biosys
• Knovel
• LabVantage
• LabWare
• LeadScope, Inc.
• Lhasa Limited
• LION bioscience
• Matrix Science
• MEDIT - Molecular Extended Distribution in Information Technology
• Metaphorics, LLC
• Modgraph Consultants, Ltd.
• Molecular Connections (Netpro)
• Molecular Discovery
• Molecular Networks
• Molecular Solutions (Recruiting Company for computational chemistry and informatics)
• Molegro
• Molinspiration
• MolMine Bioinformatics Software Solutions
• Molsearch
• MolSoft (ICM)
• NCBI US National Center for Biotechnology Information
• New River Kinematics (MoluCAD)
• NLM US National Library of Medicine
• OpenEye Scientific Software
• Ovid
• Pharma Algorithms
• Princeton Simulations (Conformer)
• Proteome Systems
• Q-Chem, Inc.
• Questel/Orbit, Inc.
• Rosetta Biosoftware
• Schrödinger
• SciTegic
• Semantic Laboratories
• SemiChem (AMPAC, Codessa)
• Serena Software, Inc. (Pcmodel)
• STN
• Sunset Molecular Discovery, LLC
• Symyx Technologies
• TDS Technical Database Services, Inc. (DIPPR/EHS, COSMOtherm, LogKOW)
• TimTec
• Tripos
• Waters (Empower, NuGenesis, MassLynx)
• Wavefunction (Spartan)
• Wiley-VCH Publishers
• WinMOPAC (Fujitsu)

Also check out these:

• Cheminformatics Companies on wiki
  
  
• Network Science, NetSci's Biotech & Pharmaceutical YellowPages
• LIMSource
• Scientific Computing's LIMS Guide
• Chembiogrid
  
  

XTractor Premium - A Platform for discovery, knowledge sharing, analysis and modelling of published biomedical facts.

• The only Knowledgebase which provides "manually" annotated facts from PubMed on a weekly basis
  
  
• Innovative Features like Semantic Search, Concept Linking, Bibliographic search, Save, Export and Visualize
  
  
• Only Knowledgebase with daily updations from PubMed
  
  
• XTractor Premium now at an Special Introductory Offer. Subscribe now and save!
  
  
• Request for a Trial
  
  

Agilent to Acquire Varian to Expand Footprint in Life Sciences

Agilent Technologies has inked a definitive agreement to acquire Varian for $52 per share, or a total of around $1.5 billion.

The acquisition is Agilent's largest in the life sciences space and continues a strategy by the firm to focus on that segment and its "transformation into a leading bio-analytical measurement company.

The deal will expand Agilent's presence in the life sciences research and applied markets, such as the environment and energy. Agilent said that it also will expand its product portfolio into atomic and molecular spectroscopy and in other fields including nuclear magnetic resonance, imaging, and vacuum technologies.

"This acquisition is a major step in Agilent's transformation into a leading bio-analytical measurement company," Agilent President and CEO Bill Sullivan said in a statement. "The combination of Varian with Agilent's bio-analytical measurement business will result in the broadest product offering in the industry."

The acquisition price of $52 per share represents a 35 percent premium over Varian's closing price on Friday of $39.20. The boards of directors of both firms have unanimously approved the all-cash offer, said Agilent. Varian's shareholders will need to approve the deal as well.

Following completion of the deal, which is expected by the end of 2009, Agilent CFO Adrian Dillon will be responsible for combining Varian with Agilent's Bio-Analytical Measurement segment consistent with Agilent's operating model. "We have the opportunity to create significant value for Agilent shareholders by leveraging the combined entity's infrastructure and global supply chain," Dillon said in the statement.

Agilent said that it expects the acquisition to generate $75 million in annual cost synergies and achieve the firm's 20 percent return on invested capital target within four to five years.

Varian had annual revenue of around $1 billion for fiscal-year 2008. The firm Palo Alto, Calif.-based firm also reported its third-quarter financial results today. It reported revenues of $196.6 million for the quarter, down around 20 percent.

XTractor Premium - A Platform for discovery, knowledge sharing, analysis and modelling of published biomedical facts.

• The only Knowledgebase which provides "manually" annotated facts from PubMed on a weekly basis
  
• Innovative Features like Semantic Search, Concept Linking, Bibliographic search, Save, Export and Visualize
  
• Only Knowledgebase with daily updations from PubMed
  
• XTractor Premium now at an Special Introductory Offer. Subscribe now and save!
  
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House Passes Proposed 3 Percent NIH Funding Increase

The US House of Representatives on Friday passed a 2010 budget for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education that would increase funding for the National Institutes of Health by nearly $1 billion over its appropriation for 2009.

The bill, which passed the house by a vote of 264 to 153, seeks an NIH appropriation for 2010 of $30.97 billion, which is an increase of $940 million over the 2009 level, excluding funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That increase also would boost NIH funding by $500 million over the $30.5 million asked for by President Barack Obama in his budget request.

The bill also seeks $6.8 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an increase of $67 million over the 2009 appropriation and $38.4 million over the White House's 2010 request.

The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, which supports increased funding for biomedical research, said passage of the bill makes it more likely that the House will pass all of the fiscal appropriations for fiscal year 2010 before Congress breaks for its late summer recess, which runs from Aug. 4, through the Labor Day weekend.

XTractor Premium - A Platform for discovery, knowledge sharing, analysis and modelling of published biomedical facts.

• The only Knowledgebase which provides "manually" annotated facts from PubMed on a weekly basis
  
• Innovative Features like Semantic Search, Concept Linking, Bibliographic search, Save, Export and Visualize
  
• Only Knowledgebase with daily updations from PubMed
  
• XTractor Premium now at an Special Introductory Offer. Subscribe now and save!
  
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XTractor Premium Application Note on Nature|Methods

Published Literature findings act as a key driver for decision making in drug discovery and biotechnology industry. Majority of the researchers prefer PubMed for published literature since it is a free resource for dissemination of scientific information. Data mining biomedical information from PubMed has been a long-standing problem for many researchers across the globe. On an average more than 50,000 scientific abstracts get published in PubMed every month and for a researcher it is a highly time consuming task to pick the most relevant abstracts everyday and annotate them accurately for research purposes. Though many text mining NLP (Natural Language Processing) engines are used to address this problem, manually annotated data has its own advantages in terms of accuracy and quality of the data that is captured. However, one of the major disadvantages with manual data mining still happens to be the processing time and its cost intensive nature.

So the need arises for a system, which can accurately process this vast repertoire of scientific information with a quick turn around time. We have tried to address both these problems with XTractor. XTractor provides the researchers with the most relevant scientific facts manually annotated (It is proven by our analysis to be 12-35% more accurate than the text mining engines) and delivered with in the shortest turnaround time. Also, XTractor comes with advanced analytical features such as Semantic Search, Concept linking and comprehensive downloadable reports for faster analysis of the biomedical data.

Click here to view the full application note at nature|methods

XTractor Premium - A Platform for discovery, knowledge sharing, analysis and modelling of published biomedical facts.

• The only Knowledgebase which provides "manually" annotated facts from PubMed on a weekly basis
  
• Innovative Features like Semantic Search, Concept Linking, Bibliographic search, Save, Export and Visualize
  
• Only Knowledgebase with daily updations from PubMed
  
• XTractor Premium now at an Special Introductory Offer. Subscribe now and save!
  
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Even as the globe has lurched into recession, the Facebook economy seems to be booming

Is Facebook a phenomenon — or a fad?

In the two years since Facebook opened its platform to outside developers, more than 300,000 Facebook applications, or "apps," have been created — games, quizzes, digital gifts and more. The successful apps boost users' engagement with Facebook — sometimes called "stickiness" — but do not directly provide revenue.

Piggybacking on Facebook has been profitable for several startups. Zynga, which according to some reports is raking in annual revenues of $100 million with the poker game Texas Hold'em and other games, has grown from 45 employees to more than 250 in the past year, Pincus said. About "70 percent, perhaps 80 percent" of Zynga's growth, he said, could be attributed to Facebook.

Flixster's growth also illustrates Facebook's role as a driver of Web innovation. Founded in January 2006, Flixster.com was attracting about 4 million monthly unique visitors when Facebook opened its development platform. Fearing competition, Flixster built its own Facebook app. That app's traffic quickly surpassed visitors to Flixster.com.

More recently, Flixster built an app for Apple's iPhone — and it's activated via Facebook Connect. "It's the glue," Greenstein said.

The success of Facebook's development platform has inspired a trend: Google, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo, Yahoo and the Apple iPhone have all opened up to outside developers.

Do you want to know more?

XTractor Premium - A Platform for discovery, knowledge sharing, analysis and modelling of published biomedical facts.

• The only Knowledgebase which provides "manually" annotated facts from PubMed on a weekly basis
  
• Innovative Features like Semantic Search, Concept Linking, Bibliographic search, Save, Export and Visualize
  
• Only Knowledgebase with daily updations from PubMed
  
• XTractor Premium now at an Special Introductory Offer. Subscribe now and save!
  
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