Kiwi Genetics Software a Top Apple Download

By SCHWARZ, Reuben

USER-FRIENDLY genetics software developed in Auckland has become the most popular science download from Apple Computer’s website worldwide.

The Geneious software, built by Auckland firm Biomatters and released last month, groups tasks such as gene sequence alignment and analysis into one easy-to-use application. It is free for non- commercial users and has so far been downloaded thousands of times. It’s also available for Windows and Linux PCs.

Biomatters chief executive Daniel Batten says there are 300,000 microbiologists in the world, but not nearly as many bioinformaticians, the specialists who build software to solve biological problems. Much of the existing software is written for people with IT skills.

“It’s not dissimilar to PCs before you had a graphical user interface. Often they’re expected to write their own Java script or Unix script to run their tools. It’s a little like asking people to write Visual Basic to use an Excel program.”

Java-based Geneious is modelled on e-mail software such as Microsoft’s Outlook. It downloads publications and gene sequences into an “inbox”, where genes can be easily analysed, modelled and compared to known sequences in public databases.

Mr Batten says the software will help microbiologists keep on top of new sequences as they’re made public. He estimates the amount of data in such public databases doubles every year.

Geneious is built on an open architecture, meaning Biomatters can plug in other applications easily. Most recently it integrated Jmol, an open-source, Java-based application which displays a molecule’s shape.

Biomatters will publish Geneious’ application programming interface, or API, on its website soon, which will let anyone build add-on modules for the software.

The company will release a professional version this year which will have more functions and be easier to use.

Biomatters raised $1 million from angel investors and government grants to develop the software last year.

After testing by a group of 30 microbiologists, Biomatters rethought the project and added more functions.

The company also makes laboratory efficiency software Cheesecake.

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(c) 2006 Dominion Post. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.