Bio::Newsletter - Issue Q1, 2007

Mike's Corner

Warm greetings and welcome to the first Bio::Newsletter of 2007! We hope all of you had an enjoyable and relaxing Holiday Season with your family and friends.

In this first Bio::Newsletter of '07, we focus on providing a glimpse of the possibilities that custom software can bring to you and your research. When it comes to custom software, many times the biggest roadblock is deciding if you need a custom software solution. Below you'll find a great guide to determining if you have unmet software needs that can be solved with custom software. Take the quiz and see how you do.

Be sure to also check out our current conference schedule for the 2007 season. We will be returning to some venues as well as visiting new locations. If you would like to see us at a particular conference, let us know! We truly enjoy meeting with everyone, discussing your research and determining how Bio::Neos can help you reach your research goals.

We had a great year in 2006 and look forward to growing our current working relationships and building new ones in the coming year. We thank all of you for your business and continued interest in Bio::Neos, Inc.

Best Wishes,

Key Dates

Upcoming Dates to Know:

• February 2007
  Starting February 2007, all non-AIDS research grant applications to the NIH must be submitted electronically via Grants.gov An archived training session on the SF424 application is available here.
• Thursday, April 12, 2007
  Videocast @ 3pm EST: BCIG SPEAKER EVENT: Plausible Neural Network - A Self-Organized Network for Large-Scale High Dimensional Data Analysis. Website

One of the services that Bio::Neos provides is custom software development. Since we began offering custom software consulting, we have had a very encouraging response from many researchers. However, some still remain skeptical or unsure of what custom software can do for them. "Custom Software" is a simple concept but has such a broad area of application that many wonder if they can benefit from such a resource. We would like to take this opportunity to provide a clarified description of our custom software development service, in addition to offering pointers for determining your specific needs and deciding if Bio::Neos can best meet those needs.

Bio::Neos has over 40 years combined experience in bioinformatics. Our computational scientists have taken part in multiple collaborative life sciences research projects ranging in size from complex multi-year projects, to small data processing jobs. Through the Bio::Neos custom software service, you are able to benefit from the experiences of our senior researchers as if they were a part of your research team. This allows you to avoid a lengthy search and interview process, training period, and other HR headaches related to hiring a new employee.

Every research group can benefit from custom designed software. "Every research group
can benefit from custom
designed software." Computers are powerful tools that scientists can, and should, use to their advantage. While they will never replace the need for human reasoning, computers can augment the research process to make it as efficient as possible. The most commonly recognized uses for computers in research are the completion of repetitive tasks and the precise calculation of difficult formulas and algorithms. However, computers excel in other areas as well, including data management and data visualization. Often, it is possible to develop software that creates a dynamic, interactive display of data that would otherwise be difficult to visualize. A perfect example is the human genome. Examining a printed version of the human genome would be inefficient and yet the same data is easily reviewed with any popular genome browser. Even smaller datasets are often hard to visualize without an interactive component, and computer software can provide that interaction. Because of our experience, Bio::Neos excels at developing good User Interfaces (UIs) for unique datasets, and UIs that you can begin using immediately without a steep learning curve.

"Bio::Neos has the experience
necessary to develop custom
data sharing applications . . .
maximizing the efficiency of
your collaboration." Collaboration is an important part of research and computers are already heavily used tools for data sharing, but often the sharing is limited to spreadsheets and written documents. This data sharing is faster, but only marginally more efficient than paper data sharing techniques. Bio::Neos has the experience necessary to develop custom data sharing applications that will allow you to quickly share data in a common format and provide real-time annotation and analyses, maximizing the efficiency of your collaboration.

If you are still unsure if you could benefit from custom developed software, ask yourself these questions:

• Do you have technicians performing a repetitive calculation or other written task?
• Do you share data and results with collaborators via email or paper?
• Do you have a large amount of data that is difficult to browse or review?
• Do your researchers take written notes that they share with each other?
• Do you have data or result printouts that are passed between multiple people in your lab?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you will benefit from our custom software development. If you are interested in learning more information about this process, please contact us and arrange a meeting. We are happy to arrange a free initial consultation.

Customers of our custom software development all receive many benefits. These benefits include the personal attention of our development team, the possibility of our development team collaborating with your existing IT or computational support, and frequent updates and involvement in your project. Most importantly, we have a policy that you will retain all of the material that we develop for your project, from the notes at our initial consultation, to the finalized end product, and everything in between.

I urge you to consider customized software solutions from Bio::Neos. Even if you feel that your computational needs are sufficiently filled, please take a moment to examine your current situation and determine if software customized to meet the specific needs of your research could further increase the efficiency of your lab. Contact us today, or visit: http://bioneos.com/products/custom.php