New platform for Analysis of NGS, qPCR and Microarray Data

Integromics(R), a market leader in IT solutions provisions for life sciences in the field of genomics and proteomics, announces the launch of its OmicsOffice(R) platform for the analysis and integration of genomics data from NGS, qPCR and microarrays technologies.

OmicsOffice is the first product bundle which combines Integromic’s software solutions for the analysis of data from NGS (SeqSolve(TM)), qPCR (RealTime StatMiner(R)) and microarray experiments (Integromics Biomarker Discovery(R)) on the TIBCO(R) Spotfire(R) platform. With OmicsOffice, Integromics is able to offer users increased flexibility and homogeneity by providing a consistent portfolio of software systems for life sciences.

The product completes the existing “Click And Go(TM)” automatic workflows for RNAseq, ChipSeq, qPCR and microarray based gene expression with a set of powerful modules for the ‘downstream’ integration and analysis of results from these technologies. These new modules include extended and platform-independent functional analysis (featuring gene ontology and gene set enrichment) as well as functionality for seamless integration of data from different platforms that make for example validation of array or RNAseq results with qPCR or integration of miRNA expression with their corresponding target genes easily available.

OmicsOffice tools are user-friendly, cross-platform and generic, meaning they can handle custom data and be used with results from any bioinformatics pipeline once imported into TIBCO Spotfire.

The functional analysis tool can assess if a gene ontology functional category, a KEGG Pathway or an InterPro motif is statistically over or under-represented in a set of genes of interest. This offers new biological insights into the results. For instance, scientists can identify molecular functions, biological processes or reported diseases that are correlated with the underlying experiment. Statistics are also available for gene set enrichment under this function.

A second function is comparative analysis which, using an integrative module, allows scientists to integrate and compare results from different experiments for the purpose of validation, as an example. The software also provides a specific module to correlate the expression levels of known miRNAs with those of their respective targets.

A further module for annotation management allows for a smooth and flexible cross-platform integration experience. OmicsOffice tools use standard and widely used annotations systems like UniProt, Affymetrix(R) ProbeID, ENSEMBL, NCBI Entrez/RefSeq, microRNAs from TargetScan, microRNA.org. In addition, custom annotations can be simply integrated

“In the era of high throughput ‘omics’ experiments and considering the high diversity of technologies used in life sciences, it is crucial for laboratories to keep in line with the technological advances,” said Dr. Sylvain Foissac, product manager at Integromics. “This constant evolution is a threat for developing and maintaining a stable data analysis environment. Most bioinformatics tools are specific to the technology used for the origin of the data and this can make the analysis process cumbersome as well as fragmenting the evidence and delaying scientific conclusions.

“Moreover, as multiple layers of information are made available quickly by different technologies, integrating heterogeneous data is becoming a key feature in the computational analysis process. For example, as we have seen in the past with microarrays and now with NGS, new technologies always need to be validated by a previous one or at least compared using a reference data set. Flexible, integrative computational tools are needed in corporate environments as well as in academia to efficiently perform comparative analyses.

“We have developed OmicsOffice to provide a streamlined and common analysis environment to analyse results from different technologies and the analytical tools to compare and achieve a higher level of results using these combinations.”

The OmicsOffice product will be available to buy in May, 2012. Integromics will also provide its OmicsOffice tools free to all license holders of an Integromics product on TIBCO Spotfire and to all new users until the end of the year.

Integromics will be presenting its OmicsOffice package at the European Human Genetics Conference ESHG 2012 in Nuremberg, Germany, June 23 – 26, with a workshop on June 23 (PRAG Room, 11:45am) and a booth (stand number 652).