[BioC] S+ArrayAnalyzer and BioConductor Announcement

[Michael O'Connell]

Greetings to all and apologies for any cross-postings. If you know of anyone
else who could benefit from this announcement please forward to them. Best
regards and good luck to everyone, Michael O'Connell. 
BioConductor Project and Insightful Corp. Collaboration Announcement
This week, Insightful Corporation announced the availability of
S+ArrayAnalyzer version 2.0, an updated module for S-PLUS based on
collaboration with the BioConductor Project - a widely-used open source and
open development software project for the analysis and comprehension of
genomic data. 
The software will be described in a free 1 hour public web seminar on
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2004 at 11:30 AM EST / 8:30 AM PST entitled:
Using S+ArrayAnalyzer 2.0 to Improve Gene Expression Analysis and Deploy Best
Practices
You can register for this event at
http://www.insightful.com/news_events/webcasts/pharm04/arrayanalyzer.asp
The collaboration between Insightful and BioConductor delivers benefits to
commercial and academic researchers analyzing high-throughput assay data and
microarray experiments:
- S+ArrayAnalyzer S+AA embraces and extends the Bioconductor 1.4 object model
so that both offerings share a common framework. This allows researchers in
the field to create new software methods and algorithms for two widely-used
software platforms using a single underlying object model and to use the same
syntax for future collaborative research. 
- S+ArrayAnalyzer adds many features that can improve productivity for users,
such as installers, more data access options, a guided-workflow interface,
interactive graphics with hyperlinked annotation and Web deployment of
applications. 
- S+ArrayAnalyzer is a commercially supported product from Insightful, a
long-established vendor with fully staffed tech support, training, and
consulting.
This collaboration between Insightful and the BioConductor Group has brought
the expertise of the open-source and research communities and the rigorous
development environment of the commercial software world together. Through
programs such as sponsorship of a graduate student in the BioConductor
project, and feedback from its professional Quality Assurance testing team,
Insightful's participation in this collaboration has served to improve the
availability and reliability of microarray analysis software for both the
academic research and commercial user. In addition, through its relationships
with customers in commercial drug discovery and awareness of their unique
needs, Insightful has helped drive continued advancements and innovation in
both the open source and commercial offerings: for example, a new
differential expression library (lpe), written by Insightful and the
University of Virginia, has been ported to R and included in both
S+ArrayAnalyzer and Bioconductor v1.4.
"The BioConductor-Insightful collaboration helps ensure the distribution and
high-level end-user support of key bioinformatics tools to the broadest
possible population of researchers," said spokespeople for The BioConductor
Project. "BioConductor is an academic project focused on creation and
distribution of high-quality open source statistical and computational
methods and software for bioinformatics, while Insightful has over a decade
of experience in user interface design, documentation, and user support for
statistical computing. The results of this collaboration should benefit
researchers in both commercial and non-profit organizations."
"Our collaboration with BioConductor is a blueprint for how Insightful can
work with the open source community to bring highly innovative and productive
data analysis applications to the widest possible user base," said Jeff
Coombs, CEO of Insightful. "This cooperation improves the analytic solutions
available to our common base of S programmers and the non-statisticians who
benefit from using applications developed with S-PLUS and R."
S+ArrayAnalyzer is available now with pricing for commercial and academic
organizations available by calling (800)569-0123 x479, or via email at
S-PLUS.pharma at insightful.com
ABOUT BIOCONDUCTOR
BioConductor is an academic project focused on creation and distribution of
high-quality open source statistical and computational methods and software
for bioinformatics. It includes contributions to the management and analysis
of cDNA and oligonucleotide microarray and SAGE platforms, to the structure
and flexible manipulation of genomic annotation data, and to the
computational infrastructure required for effective bioinformatics, including
GUI component libraries, novel structures and algorithms for networks and
graphical systems, and improvements to the R language, especially in the
domain of programmatic verification, documentation and distribution of
software packages. BioConductor is widely used by investigators on many
different platforms and is a basis for training in statistical genomics and
bioinformatics in a number of prominent universities on four continents.
Spokespeople for the BioConductor Project: S. Dudoit, Division of
Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley; R.A. Irizarry, Department
of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University; V.J. Carey, Harvard Medical
School; R. Gentleman, Harvard School of Public Health.
ABOUT INSIGHTFUL 
Insightful Corporation (NASDAQ:IFUL) provides enterprises with scalable data
analysis solutions that drive better decisions faster by revealing patterns,
trends and relationships. The company is a leading supplier of software and
services for statistical data analysis, data mining and knowledge access
enabling clients to gain intelligence from numeric and text data.
Insightful products include S-PLUS®, Insightful Miner, S-PLUS Server® and
InFact®. Insightful consulting services provide specialized expertise and
proven processes for the design, development and deployment of customized
solutions. The company has been delivering industry-leading, high-ROI
solutions for 17 years to thousands of companies in financial services,
pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, telecommunications, manufacturing, plus
government and research institutions. 
Headquartered in Seattle, Insightful has offices in New York City, North
Carolina, France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, with distributors
around the world. For more information, visit www.insightful.com, email
info at insightful.com or call 1-800-569-0123.