Agilent Technologies and Strand ally on biology software

Agilent Technologies will collaborate with Strand Scientific Intelligence to create new life science software solutions based on Agilent's GeneSpring bioinformatics system.

The multi-year agreement will see the system expanded to add functionality for a variety of new disciplines, commencing with a version which allows genomics, metabolomics and proteomics data to be analysed together.

Other projects on which the companies will be working include the addition of Strand's next generation sequencing analysis capabilities to GeneSpring, as well as a new portal for licensing and supporting the GeneSpring family.

This represents the latest phase in a working relationship between the two firms that has been ongoing since 2007.

Gustavo Salem, vice-president and general manager for Agilent's biological systems division, said: "We intend to lead the way in providing tools for integrated biology research and partnering with Strand is an excellent way of addressing the all-important bioinformatics part of the equation."

Earlier this month, Agilent launched a new SureSelect target enrichment kit for use in kinome-based sequencing studies.