KATRINEBJERG, Denmark—CLC biorolled out two big announcements in October to enhance its position in thenext-generation sequencing market by integrating its workbench and serverproducts with other companies' technologies: the first with BIOBASE, and thesecond with GenoLogics.
In a move they hope will givegenomics researchers worldwide a "world class solution," CLC bio andWolfenbüttel, Germany-based BIOBASE have entered into a partnership tointegrate BIOBASE's comprehensive TRANSFAC database with CLC bio's workbenchesand award-winning server solution.
The aim is to give researchers whoare working with next-generation sequencing data "instant access toexperimentally proven knowledge" for their genomics analyses, the companiesnote. They expect to achieve this by combining what they see as CLC bio'scutting-edge algorithms and user-friendly platform with BIOBASE's best-in-classcollection of eukaryotic gene regulation data.
The deal was announced in tandemwith the two companies' attendance at the Biotechnica/Bio-IT World Europeconference in Hannover, Germany in early October, but in fact, CLC bio CEOThomas Knudsen reports that CLC bio had already started integrating TRANSFAC asa plug-in into their workbenches and enterprise platform. He expects that thoseefforts will pay off with a commercially available product for release inspring 2010.
In addition, this relationshipalso calls for the two companies to soon begin promoting and selling eachother's solutions.
"It's a strategic goal for us topartner with companies who can deliver added benefits to our solutions," Knudsensays, "and together with BIOBASE, we're essentially forming a scientific dreamteam in the genomics era, by combining our award-winning platform with the bestcompany in the world at gathering and indexing biological information."
"CLC bio offers a world classplatform for user-friendly, fast and advanced bioinformatics analysis ofsequence data," adds Michael Tysiak, CEO of BIOBASE. "Together, we cantremendously enhance researchers' output, by giving them an integrated workflowand reporting tools which combine the best algorithms within genomics with thebest gene regulation data."
BIOBASE's TRANSFAC database—alongwith various supplemental databases—focuses on eukaryotic transcriptionalregulation and contains data on transcription factors, their target genes andregulatory binding sites.
CLC bio, for its part, offers anumber of workbench products. CLC Main Workbench, for example, creates asoftware environment for conducting large numbers of advanced DNA, RNA, andprotein sequence analyses and gene expression analysis. There is also the CLCGenomics Workbench, for analyzing and visualizing next-generation sequencingdata, while integrating most researchers' typical sequencing workflows. Thecompany also offers the CLC DNA Workbench, CLC RNA Workbench and CLC ProteinWorkbench.
Almost two weeks after thatannouncement, CLC bio and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada-based GenoLogicsreported that they will provide an informatics and analysis solution, optimizedfor next-generation sequencing research, that addresses data management anddata analysis in a single integrated system.
This end-to-end solution isexpected to have a significant positive impact on researchers' ability toaggregate raw data across next-generation sequencing experiments to get tobiological meaningful results faster. This will be accomplished by combiningGenoLogics' lab and data management system for genomics, known as Geneus, withthe CLC Genomics Server, CLC Genomics Workbench and CLC NGS Cell.
"With this collaboration, ourenterprise platform expands with an end-to-end workflow that couplesworld-class LIMS functionalities like tracking of samples and data as well asreporting, with our comprehensive next-generation sequencing analysiscapabilities, to the obvious benefit of our customers," Knudsen says. "This wayresearchers can keep up with the vast volumes of sequencing data being churnedout by high-throughput sequencing machines, and quickly turn the massiveamounts of raw data into meaningful results."
The combined solution will provideusers with a well-organized and intuitive graphical interface for carrying outan extensive range of high-performance computing accelerated analyses withingenomics, transcriptomics and epigenomics, notes Sal Sanci, vice president ofproducts for GenoLogics.
"This collaboration combines two proven systems, intoone unified environment for data management and comprehensive analysis," Sancinotes. "We know our customers need a unified end-to-end solution and have askedfor an integration between Geneus and CLC bio's NGS platform, and now it'savailable."
