Sun and Geospiza Launch DNA Sequencing Solution
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) and Geospiza today launched a low-cost, integrated DNA sequencing solution for life sciences researchers worldwide. The offering includes Geospiza Finch Sequencing Center software for DNA sequencing data collection, management and analysis, bundled with high-performance Sun Fire[TM] servers running Solaris[TM] or Linux Operating Systems. The new offering is designed to meet the needs of cost-conscious biotechnology companies and academic core laboratory facilities, allowing them to maximize their research and capital investment dollars with a solution that can cost-effectively increase their productivity and scale smoothly as their sequencing data volumes continue to grow.
The Sun and Geospiza solution links the management of DNA sequencing orders and laboratory workflow with advanced bioinformatics and data visualization tools. This end-to-end capability allows customers to collect, distribute and analyze sequencing data so that they can consistently produce more reliable, meaningful scientific results that can be easily and securely shared with their colleagues worldwide. The offering provides customers an ideal replacement for outdated or custom-built infrastructures that areinadequate to handle rapidly growing sequencing volumes.
“With the increasing amounts of sequencing data produced in the industry, life sciences researchers require a robust, scalable solution that can manage the entire sequencing workflow, from the instrument to results,” said Loralyn Mears, Ph.D., market development manager for global life sciences at Sun Microsystems, Inc. “Sun and partner solutions such as the Geospiza DNA sequencing bundle help customers from the most demanding industries increase efficiency and productivity, while decreasing cost.”
Sun and Geospiza have already demonstrated superior performance of the integrated solution, which surpassed the one million chromatogram benchmark test, a critical threshold measurement of its ability to handle very large quantities of data in processing, managing and analyzing DNA.
“This may be the first time that labs can purchase a bundled solution at about one tenth of the cost that it would take to custom build one in-house,” said Todd M. Smith, Ph.D., chairman and CEO of Geospiza. “With the Sun and Geospiza offering, even the most price sensitive sequencing facilities can cost-effectively increase their productivity while preserving the ability to scale their operations to handle large projects such as ESTs and whole bacterial, plant and animal genomes.”
Pricing and Availability
The Sun and Geospiza offering is available immediately from Geospiza or Sun Microsystems’ authorized resellers. A very cost-effective solution running on the Sun Fire V20z server equipped with AMD Opteron processors starts at a U.S. list price of $13,995 for both hardware and software. Larger, scalable solutions running on the SPARC(R) processor-based Sun Fire V440 server are also available to meet customers’ growing needs, with a starting U.S. list price of $37,000. More information is available at the following url: http://www.geospiza.com/sun
The Sun and Geospiza DNA Sequencing bundle is the second in a series of integrated solutions from Sun Microsystems designed specifically for life sciences customers. Earlier this year, Sun released the Sun Fire Starter Cluster for Bioinformatics with a collection of commercial and public software from industry-leading partners. More information is available at thefollowing url: http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2004-03/sunflash.20040329.1.html .
About Geospiza Finch Sequencing Center
Geospiza Finch Sequencing Center leverages web-based forms and enterprise-level IT infrastructure for streamlining the management of sequencing data, scientific analysis and laboratory workflow. Resulting data are automatically checked by the Finch software for quality, then trimmed, vector masked and delivered into a designated secure database scientists can use to review results or share with colleagues and collaborators. The Geospiza family of Finch Applications, including Finch Assembly Manager, Finch BLAST Search Manager, FinchTV, Finch Genotyping Data Manager, Finch Oligo Order Manager and Finch Customer Invoice Manager, greatly extend the core data analysis and business capabilities of Finch Sequencing Center.
About Sun Microsystems
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision — “The Network Is The Computer” — has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com .
About Geospiza
Geospiza combines life sciences and IT expertise to deliver low-cost, high-productivity software systems to research teams and core labs worldwide. Geospiza’s integrated Finch system for DNA sequencing laboratory workflow, data management and analysis turns complex scientific processes into reliable, upgradeable and scalable every-day practices scientists and technicians can use to get their real work done. Geospiza was founded in 1997 and serves more than 10,000 researchers in both established and emerging biotechnology, academic, government and bio-pharmaceutical companies worldwide. More information is available at http://www.geospiza.com .
NOTE: Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, The Network Is The Computer, Sun Fire and Solaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the US and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
