Boosting research on organisms

MADISON, Wis.—Early March saw DNASTAR announce the release of Lasergene 13, which the company says significantly advances scientists’ ability to perform RNA research on model and non-model organisms on standard desktop computers.

 

“Lasergene 13 truly has something for everybody,” asserted Tom Schwei, vice president and general manager of DNASTAR. “In designing this release, we wanted to ensure we supported our next-generation sequencing customers, who continue to explore new domains in their research. With the recent growth in RNA-based sequencing, we decided to put a strong emphasis on RNA into Lasergene 13. We also wanted to ensure we supported human clinical researchers with advanced capability. Finally, we included in Lasergene 13 improvements that will appeal to scientists who work with bacteria and those who perform more traditional sequence analysis.”

 

Significant software enhancements include the ability to perform de-novo transcriptome assembly of RNA data for any size project on a desktop computer, automatic mRNA annotation from one or more RefSeq databases selected by the researcher, creation of one or more transcript templates for gene expression analyses and a complete RNA-Seq gene expression workflow, including strong visualization and analysis capability.

 

In addition, Lasergene 13 offers improved capabilities for scientists using other types of data, including access to a human variant annotation database to support functional analysis of mutations, automated annotation mapping between microbial genomes and enhanced template searching capabilities in support of NovaFold, the company’s protein structure prediction application.

 

“Lasergene 13 helps scientists improve their research, regardless of the type of work they are doing, which is and has been our continuing goal as a company,” said Schwei. “We continue to take maximum advantage of our patented algorithms and unique best practices to solve some of the most difficult problems facing scientists today, and we look forward to continuing to do so in future Lasergene releases, as well.”

 

Late that same month, DNASTAR  announced that Inhibrx—a biologic immunotherapeutic company focused on the treatment of high unmet medical needs in oncology, infectious disease and inflammatory conditions—had entered into an agreement supporting an organization-wide site license of DNASTAR Lasergene software.

 

“After using Lasergene software in-house to meet our day-to-day sequence analysis needs, it became clear that a long-term, company-wide site license of the software makes sense for our organization,” said Dr. John Timmer, research director of Inhibrx. “We have found the software to be easy to use and powerful, and DNASTAR’s technical support has been very responsive and on point. By committing to this license for multiple years, our scientists can count on a consistent, strong platform being available to them throughout their research projects. We look forward to using Lasergene on an increasing basis as we continue to grow our business.”

 

“As a leading-edge firm in developing fit-for-function biotherapeutics, Inhibrx represents a great fit for our software platform, now and into the future,’ said DNASTAR’s Schwei.

 

Financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.