press releases and scientific publications

paper button Phenoclustering: online mining of cross-species phenotypes Groth P, Kalev I, Kirov I, Traikov B, Leser U, Weiss B. Bioinformatics 2010 26(15):1924-1925. Epub 2010 Jun 18.
Abstract: Recently, several methods for analyzing phenotype data have been published, but only few are able to cope with data sets generated in different studies, with different methods, or for different species. We developed an online system in which more than 300 000 phenotypes from a wide variety of sources and screening methods can be analyzed together. Clusters of similar phenotypes are visualized as networks of highly similar phenotypes, inducing gene groups useful for functional analysis. This system is part of PhenomicDB, providing the world's largest cross-species phenotype data collection with a tool to mine its wealth of information... more
paper button Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) breast specimens need to be embedded completely in order to determine the correct extent of the disease. K. Bendrat, G. Georgiev, H. Corterier, K. Friedrichs, C. Lindner and A. Niendorf Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2007 ASCO Annual Meeting Proceedings (Post-Meeting Edition).Vol 25, No 18S (June 20 Supplement), 2007: 11061
Abstract: The processing of breast specimens suspicious of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is hampered by the fact that DCIS is not regularily visible at the gross level. There is no general consensus as how to process those breast specimens. Suggestions lead from examination of the entire tissue sample with a special focus on the resection margins to algorithms such as cutting only those paraffin blocks containing calcifications... more
paper button PhenomicDB: a new cross-species genotype/phenotype resource. Groth P, Pavlova N, Kalev I, Tonov S, Georgiev G, Pohlenz HD, Weiss B. Nucleic Acids Res. 2007 Jan;35(Database issue):D696-9. Epub 2006 Sep 18.
Abstract: Phenotypes are an important subject of biomedical research for which many repositories have already been created. Most of these databases are either dedicated to a single species or to a single disease of interest. With the advent of technologies to generate phenotypes in a high-throughput manner, not only is the volume of phenotype data growing fast but also the need to organize these data in more useful ways... more
paper button PhenomicDB: a multi-species genotype/phenotype database for comparative phenomics. Abdullah Kahraman, Andrey Avramov, Lyubomir G. Nashev, Dimitar Popov , Rainer Ternes , Hans-Dieter Pohlenz and Bertram Weiss. Bioinformatics 2005 Feb 1;21(3):418-20. Epub 2004 Sep 16.
Abstract: We have created PhenomicDB, a multi-species genotype/phenotype database by merging public genotype/phenotype data from a wide range of model organisms and Homo sapiens... more
paper button Are your people ready to develop new products faster?
Microsoft. January 2008.

"To know exactly what function has a gene is for us of essential importance. During the analysis of gene functions we collect enormous ammounts of data. Because of this we need optimal software tools." says Dr. Hans Kast, CEO BASF Plant Science GmbH. For this reason, the Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Metalife together with BASF Plant Science and their partners HP and Intel developed a cutting-edge software system, that helps the researchers to search and explore biological databases more efficiently... more (in German)
paper button Microsoft Announces 2007 Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Award Winners.
20 June 2007.

Looking to optimize the world?s largest fully integrated life sciences knowledge base, BASF Plant Science implemented Microsoft Windows® 2003, SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition, metalife trinity, Visual Studio® 2003 and 2005, and the Microsoft .NET Framework. These solutions allowed the company to combine semantic data integration, text mining and knowledge generation to help researchers activate, compare and analyze data from sources across various areas. The enterprisewide aggregation of information and transformation into knowledge enabled BASF Plant Science to uniformly access and utilize all associated life sciences data. Metalife?s application, which can be easily enrolled on a large number of Windows clients, also drastically reduces administration expenses, by giving users easy-to-use and intuitive interfaces and complete control of tasks from database updates to user management...
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paper button Metalife: Life Sciences Company Uses SQL Server 2005 to Enhance Full-Text Searches.
Microsoft Case Study. Posted: 02/24/2006

Metalife is helping researchers who are seeking new treatments and cures for a range of diseases. The company?s PhenomicDB database provides a central repository for genetic information from the Human Genome Project and similar efforts. As the success of Metalife?s database has grown, so has demand for support for concurrent, full-text searches against its database... more
paper button Phenomic Database.
Gen: Best of the Web - May 1 2005 (Vol. 25, No. 9)

You've seen DNA sequence databases for hundreds of species and protein sequence databases for probably an equal number. Interestingly, you've probably rarely, if ever, seen databases on phenotypes arising from these genes. This is an excellent reminder of how far molecular biology knowledge has progressed. Even 20 years ago, our knowledge of biology was far more focused on phenotype than on genotype. Phenotypes ARE important, however, and it is good to see databases like PhenomicDB providing online access links to phenotypes AND genotypes as information from the latter overwhelms that of the former... more
paper button Intervet: High-Performance Computing Solution Accelerates Pharmaceutical Research.
Microsoft Case Study. Posted: 03/04/2005

Intervet Innovation, a subsidiary of Intervet, operates a BioChemInformatics (BCI) division. BCI uses advanced computer modelling techniques to search for new animal medicines, but its existing infrastructure could not support the effective integration and analysis of internal and online research databases. Working with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Metalife, the BCI division built a new high-performance computing infrastructure based on the 64-bit Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system and 64-bit Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database... more
Scientific papers
paper small button Phenoclustering: online mining of cross-species phenotypes
/June 2010/
paper small button Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) breast specimens need to be embedded completely in order to determine the correct extent of the disease.
/June 2007/
paper small button PhenomicDB: a new cross-species genotype/phenotype resource.
/January 2007/
paper small button PhenomicDB: a multi-species genotype/phenotype database for comparative phenomics.
/February 2005/
Press reviews
paper small button Are your people ready to develop new products faster?
/January 2008/
paper small button Microsoft Announces 2007 Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Award Winners.
/June 2007/
paper small button Metalife: Life Sciences Company Uses SQL Server 2005 to Enhance Full-Text Searches.
/February 2006/
paper small button Phenomic Database.
/May 2005/
paper small button Intervet: High-Performance Computing Solution Accelerates Pharmaceutical Research.
/March 2005/