El Segundo, CA, February 2, 2009 - BioDiscovery Inc., the leading developer of integrated software solutions for microarray-based research announced today that Fox Chase Cancer Center’s Keystone Program in Blood Cell Development and Cancer has acquired a site license for Nexus Copy Number and Nexus Expression, two companion tools designed specifically for scientists working on DNA copy number and RNA expression analysis from microarray data.
The Keystone Program researchers are using Nexus Copy Number and Nexus Expression to help identify genes involved in blood cell development and transformation. Identification of such genes is important for further enhancement in treatment of cancers of the blood as genes involved in normal development are also likely to be involved in transformation of normal blood cells into cancerous cells. Dr. Richard Hardy, Co-Leader of the Keystone Program in Blood Cell Development and Cancer stated “I’ve found Nexus Expression to be intuitive and powerful software that we’ve quickly put to good use profiling gene expression in populations of immune cells we’re examining as part of the ImmGen Consortium. We’re also beginning to employ Nexus Copy Number for characterizing a group of B lymphomas as a part of our Program’s studies on the origins of blood cancers.” Dr. David Wiest, Co-Leader of the Keystone Program stated “the Nexus Suite enables us to be less dependent on in-house bioinformatics support as we attempt to identify the subset of genes regulating development and transformation from among the larger cohort whose altered expression or copy-number is merely correlated with these processes.”
Nexus Copy Number and Nexus Expression are complementary platform independent products supporting all array platforms including Agilent, Affymetrix, Illumina, Roche NimbleGen, and custom arrays. They can integrate data from thousands of arrays in a single project and provide a streamlined easy to use interface that allows exploration of data to generate biological knowledge with a few mouse clicks. Nexus Copy Number allows analysis of CGH and SNP arrays for single or multiple sample analysis and Nexus Expression provides analysis of gene expression arrays.
About the Keystone Program in Blood Cell Development and Cancer The Keystone Program in Blood Cell Development and Cancer is one of the four programs in Fox Chase Cancer Center’s The Keystone Programs for Collaborative Discovery which aims to accelerate the pace of medical progress against cancer. The goal of the Keystone Program in Blood Cell Development and Cancer is to identify the genes essential for blood precursor cells to give rise to the many distinct blood cell types, a critical step towards understanding blood cell cancers and improving the treatment of patients with leukemias and lymphomas. For more information on this program please visit http://keystone.foxchaseprojects.org/keystone/bloodcell_keystone.html
About BioDiscovery, Inc.
BioDiscovery is a leader in the development of microarray advanced bioinformatics software and services that enable its customers to revolutionize drug discovery and diagnostics by efficiently managing, integrating, and analyzing data generated using high-throughput microarray technology. Contact us: 310-414-8100 or www.biodiscovery.com
