indigo biosystems

News and Events

Indigo BioSystems Selected as a Finalist for Best of Show at Bio-IT World Expo

Posted: May 4, 2009

Category: Announcement

Author: Indigo BioSystems Communications

The Bio-IT World Best of Show Award offers exhibitors an exclusive opportunity to distinguish and highlight their company's products ranging from an innovative application, technology, tools, or solutions from the competition. Judged by an esteemed group of judges from Bio-IT World magazine editors and leading industry experts in the Exhibit Hall, this awards program will identify exceptional innovation in technologies used by life science professionals today.

Indigo BioSystems was selected from over 30 companies participating in the competition as a finalist for the Best of Show at Bio-IT World. Congratulations are in order for the Indigo BioSystems Team for a job well done in showcasing their product OpenStore, a component of Indigo's LabSuite that focuses on raw data intensive solutions, storing any data from any instrument or process and includes the option of translating source data into human readable XML for long term access.

The Release of Firefly

Posted: February 2009

Category: Press Release

Author: Amy Swinderman (Drug Discovery News)

Click here to view the article in Drug Discovery News.

INDIANAPOLIS—Seeking to create an easier way for mass spectrometry researchers to handle the volume of data generated in their experiments and share it with collaborators in different locations, analytical chemistry tool and technology developers—and Purdue University alumni—Prosolia Inc. and Indigo BioSystems Inc. have combined their imaging and data technologies to create FireFly, software designed to enable mass spec users to take data sets from proprietary data systems and convert them into file formats that are compatible with third-party software.

According to the companies, who announced their partnership Jan. 6, Firefly will enable researchers using Thermo Fisher Scientific’s LTQ mass spectrometer and Prosolia’s Omni Spray Ion Source platform to extract and build data sets from proprietary data systems using Indigo BioSystems’ proprietary data conversion algorithms and convert them into file formats that are compatible with BioMAP, a third-party image visualization and processing software program available for free on the Internet. The companies did not disclose the financial details of the deal, but Indigo President and co-founder Randy Julian characterized the partnership as a “co-marketing type of agreement” in which the companies will co-develop FireFly, with Prosolia then selling the software to its mass spec customers.

Combining Indigo’s open data format and globally accessible data repository services with Prosolia’s imaging systems will allow researchers to exchange data between organizations “in a secure way, but also in a way that everyone can understand the data,” Julian says.

“This is something that has gotten a lot worse now that we have gone to a fully distributed R&D model in pharma,” he says. “Our goal has been to remove barriers to collecting and analyzing large volumes of data and make them accessible to those engaged in high-performance computing. The most powerful thing about this collaboration is that we are attempting to empower people to generate and deal with large volumes of data. Essentially, they have the fire hose, and we have the swimming pool. The problem with people using high-throughput and high-content spectroscopic methods is that they tend to take small sips. Our mission is to not let data volume be the reason you don’t do a key experiment. Human disease deserves better.”

Justin Wiseman, Prosolia’s director of research and development, says FireFly is unique in that it will allow users to place Prosolia’s Omni Spray Ion Source product line—which uses a technology known as Desorption Electrospray Ionization (DESI) to directly sample surfaces without sample preparation and under ambient temperature and pressure conditions—on a Thermo Fisher, Bruker or Waters instrument and not only collect data, but visualize it as well.

“This is a capability that is unavailable in the market at this point,” Wiseman says. “If you do this with any other technique, you can only visualize the data with their instrument and software. To do that is very time-consuming. FireFly will convert the data into a common file format. This means the same experiment that would have taken weeks to months will only take hours.”

Julian stresses that although the companies provide complementary services, the partnership is “not a synergistic thing.” Principals at both companies cut their teeth on analytical chemistry services as students at Purdue University, surviving the infamous Chemistry 621 course that is widely regarded as a “boot camp” for training in chemical instrumentation.

Prosolia was established in 2003 to commercialize technology arising from the laboratory of Professor R. Graham Cooks of the Aston Laboratories of Mass Spectrometry at Purdue, while Indigo was founded in 2004 and incubated by the Ventures group of Eli Lilly & Co. until early 2006.

“It’s a great tribute to the state of Indiana that we are able to assemble this data analysis dream team,” Julian says. “If a company like Lilly wants to contract with someone to analyze samples, we now provide a mechanism in which they can get those results back. A company taking advantage of the talent and capability in the area it resides is something the industry really needs, and if that is what it decides to do, it is also our win.”

SOURCE: DDN.

Owen Hitchins Joins Indigo BioSystems as Executive Director of Sales

Posted: Feb. 16, 2009

Category: Press Release

Author: Indigo BioSystems Communications

Click here to download this article.

Indigo BioSystems, an emerging provider of laboratory data management solutions, today announced the appointment of Owen Hitchins to the role of Executive Director of Sales and Marketing. Hitchins will be responsible for all aspects of the company’s sales and marketing.

“Indigo has reached a point in its development where adding an experienced sales executive like Owen can bring about an exciting level of growth,” said Randy Julian, Indigo BioSystems President.

Owen comes to Indigo with over twenty years of commercial experience in the Life Sciences industry where most recently Owen was Director of Global Accounts for Thermo Fisher Scientific. Owen has held a variety of commercial roles in sales, sales management, marketing and product management with many of the world leading companies including Beckman Coulter, Comdisco, EDS and Thermo Fisher Scientific and consistently has delivered profitable revenue growth while exceeding customer expectations.

About Indigo BioSystems, Inc.
Indigo BioSystems, Inc. makes tools that simplify data management, improve data accessibility and allow data interchange in the life sciences. Indigo BioSystems, Inc. was founded in 2004 to provide technology to scientific research organizations allowing them to manage and interchange critical research data. Leading the creation of open format data standards, Indigo BioSystems is also enabling powerful new data analysis techniques in both basic research and regulated drug development.

SOURCE: Indigo BioSystems

IBM Blue Cloud Initiative Advances Enterprise Cloud Computing

Company Launches New Software, Services, Clients and Partnerships

Posted: Feb. 10, 2009

Category: Press Release

Author: IBM Communications

Click here to view the article on the Marketwatch website.

ARMONK, NY and LAS VEGAS, NV and SILICON VALLEY, CA and SHANGHAI, CHINA, Feb 10, 2009 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- At events around the world, IBM will reveal a series of new products, services, clients and partnerships for its Blue Cloud initiative -- through which IBM is collaborating to develop and test integrated cloud solutions for businesses.

-- Elizabeth Arden, Nexxera, The United States Golf Association, and Indigo Bio Systems sign on as new IBM cloud computing clients; TOTVS expands cloud project with IBM

-- Global Services to offer backup and recovery services for desktops and laptops, through an IBM cloud; in to a new IBM cloud environment for businesses to safely test applications

-- New IBM software manages and secures cloud computing environments

-- IBM showcases the first live demonstration of a global "overflow cloud"

-- IBM and Juniper Networks to install hybrid cloud capabilities across IBM's worldwide Cloud Labs for customer engagements

Built from extensive experience working with hundreds of clients in its 13 worldwide cloud centers, IBM today has a cross-company portfolio of cloud computing offerings for business, such as server capacity on demand, online data protection, and Lotus e-mail and collaboration software. Analyst firm IDC predicts that cloud computing services will represent a $42 billion market by 2012;(1) IBM is today announcing five new clients using its cloud computing technologies and services.

Indigo BioSystems, Inc., a privately held company offering data management and automated analysis solutions for life science researchers with a focus on the pharmaceutical industry, has recently selected IBM 's Computing on Demand Cloud Services to provide clients with a highly secure and scalable storage and computing environment for data exchange. As the company works to expand its presence across multiple geographies, IBM is offering resources for building and delivering high performance solutions based on a globally accessible cloud environment.

"We are pleased with our collaboration with IBM because in addition to meeting our clients' requirements for a scalable and globally accessible platform for data exchange, IBM's cloud services add the security and regulatory compliance needed to satisfy the pharmaceutical industry," said Randall K Julian, Jr. Ph.D., President, Indigo BioSystems, Inc.

Elizabeth Arden (RDEN 6.68, +0.16, +2.5%) , the world's premier global beauty company, recently worked with IBM to create an innovative approach to protect business-critical information through the cloud. In engaging with IBM's Business Continuity and Resiliency Services, Elizabeth Arden has implemented a 100 percent reliable solution that assures the global restoration, recovery and resilience of its key mission-critical applications, including ERP, data warehouse email backup and archival from any BCRS recovery center, and more importantly, ensures preservation of its global brand.

Similarly, The United States Golf Association (USGA) had devoted resources to performing traditional backup and restore on its critical systems for years. The USGA's reliance on timely access to mission critical data had evolved beyond traditional backup storage procedures and proactive enhancements to their environment was sought from IBM. Today, managed services from IBM's Business Continuity and Resiliency Services organization helps deliver data protection services and a comprehensive infrastructure recovery solution for the USGA through the IBM cloud to ensure the availability and resiliency of their core business functions.

"Enterprise clients need economically compelling solutions that help them run their businesses in smarter ways, while never taking their eyes off of security, resiliency and compliance," said Erich Clementi, General Manager, Enterprise Initiatives, IBM. "Cloud computing leverages many of IBM's core strengths -- such as open standards, service management, scalable systems and excellence in data center operations -- and gives clients the opportunity to leverage cloud computing's considerable cost advantages, while maintaining the highest levels of integrity, responsibility and control."

Last year, IBM announced Infrastructure Consulting Services for Cloud Computing, focused on helping clients identify and exploit opportunities for delivering services to their end-users from a cloud environment. Today, IBM is extending those capabilities with the launch of Infrastructure Strategy and Planning for Cloud Computing. This service is composed of a strategy workshop that brings together the business and technical teams for long-term planning and readiness assessment to leverage the full power of existing assets.

In addition to this, The IBM Design and Implementation for Cloud Test Environments allows clients to build a cloud platform within their own IT environments to safely test new applications. This test cloud environment can save clients up to 20 percent on improved provisioning time, dramatically improving service while also reducing labor costs associated with creating test environments significantly. In an enterprise, one of the most common risk factors in testing new applications is human error -- but because IBM's test environment cloud is built with automation and standardization, the human error factor is minimized.

In addition to the managed security services IBM offers today, the new IBM Rational AppScan 7.8 helps companies ensure that the Web services they publish into the cloud are secure, compliant and meet business policies. Working together with the new IBM Rational AppScan OnDemand, this technology ensures that Web services are monitored on a continuous basis, providing IT managers with ongoing security analysis for applications deployed in the cloud.

Along with new security software, IBM is also announcing The Service Management Center for Cloud Computing, which contains a set of offerings that together provide clients with a platform upon which to build and deliver cloud services. The cornerstone of the Service Management Center for Cloud Computing is Tivoli Provisioning Manager 7.1 and the new Tivoli Service Automation Manager, which helps clients automate both the deployment and management of computing clouds. The IBM Service Management Center for Cloud Computing will include at least nine solutions in 2009.

Finally, IBM is today revealing that it will launch a Tivoli Storage as a Service offering through its Business Continuity & Resiliency Services cloud. Beginning later in 2009, clients will be able to consume Tivoli data protection technologies via a cloud and pay for only what they use.

In a move that will continue to expand its cloud computing ecosystem, IBM will also unveil new capabilities to selected customers with IBM Business Partner, Juniper Networks, Inc. IBM and Juniper Networks will demonstrate how a hybrid cloud could allow enterprises to seamlessly extend their private clouds to remote servers in a secure public cloud, as high priority applications are given preference over the lower priority ones when resources become constrained. IBM and Juniper are installing this network capability into IBM's nine world wide Cloud Labs for customer engagements. Once installed, IBM and Juniper could seamlessly roll client workloads from Beijing to Silicon Valley to Sao Paulo to ensure that clients never miss a service level agreement.

Nexxera is a software and services company that provides an electronic data environment among enterprises, customers and banks for business and financial transactions between firms. Nexxera acts as a hub between the elements of the value chain, providing a cloud of financial and commercial information. This replaces paper invoices, purchase orders and receipts with electronic documents shared between all parties. Nexxera now works with IBM to create an on demand, resilient, secure and scalable business infrastructure to support its business growth and global expansion.

Another client using IBM cloud solutions, TOTVS (BOVESPA: TOTS3) has expanded its ERP on-demand platform for the SMB market in Brazil and Mexico. IBM is deploying hardware infrastructure, database management, monitoring, security, availability and contingencies via the cloud. TOTVS, the second largest ERP provider in Latin America, supplies the ERP system and application support to clients. IBM and TOTVS have successfully deployed the SaaS model for its flagship product, Datasul, in Brazil where they now have thousands of SaaS users, and based on this success, the two companies partnered again to offer a second application, Microsiga Protheus, on the IBM platform to clients in Mexico.

Due to decades of technology acquisitions to fuel growing businesses, enterprises are now facing a breaking point with their IT systems. Some systems can't share information and workloads, servers are highly underutilized and the cost of energy is becoming greater than the value of the systems the energy powers. In some cases, nearly 70 percent of companies' IT budgets can be devoted to managing, maintaining, securing and upgrading systems rather than building new capabilities, services and applications. Cloud computing changes these economics dramatically.

An emerging compute model for delivering IT-related capabilities as a service, cloud computing promises dramatically better ease of use, economies of scale and much greater flexibility in sourcing and adapting to change. The technologies comprising cloud computing -- virtualization, SOA, Software as a Service, request-driven provisioning -- are technologies that IBM invented or is well-known for excelling in today. IBM helps its clients and partners realize these goals in three principle ways:

-- IBM helps clients build their own cloud environments for internal and external use
-- IBM delivers cloud services and software to be consumed by clients and partners directly
-- IBM builds an ecosystem of developers, partners, vendors and universities to further cloud computing and standards adoption

With today's announcements, IBM has the most complete set of hardware, software and services for enterprise clients to harness cloud computing for cost and efficiency benefits -- while keeping their businesses secure, resilient and performing at optimal levels.

Further information is available on all the products and services announced today. Please contact IBM Communications for more information of visit ibm.com/cloud.

(1) IDC, IDC Finds Cloud Computing Entering Period of Accelerating Adoption and Poised to Capture IT Spending Growth Over the Next Five Years, Doc # prUS21480708, October 2008.

Media Contact
Kelly Sims
IBM Communications
630-235-8751
Kelly.sims@us.ibm.com

SOURCE: IBM

Application of Semantic Web in Laboratory Workflows
Monday, January 26, 2009 4:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Wyndham Hotel: Mojave Learning Center

Track: Informatics

Author: Randall Julian

Co-authors: Vijay Bulusu, Pfizer Inc; Randall Julian, Indigo BioSystems; Raymond Bemish, Pfizer Inc

Drug discovery and development are data intensive activities which integrate many complex and highly variable workflows to produce a marketed therapy. Historically, like most of science, these tasks have been manual and heavily dependent on paper-based documentation and direct communication. The advent of the personal computer has allowed many paper-based processes to be replaced with their electronic counter-parts: word processor and spreadsheet documents. These tools should have produced a measurable improvement in productivity. Instead, it appears that pharmaceutical industry efficiency has dropped, forcing companies to look for new approaches to meet current business environment changes.

One place improvement seems possible is in how data is used in enterprise $&D operations. Drug research is clearly a judgment based activity, but word-processor documents and spreadsheets often fail to represent sufficient context or detail of experiments to allow efficient decision making. The personalized nature of spreadsheets and lab notebook pages requires many assumptions about semantics resulting in ambiguity and an exponentially drop in document value over time. The industry shift to outsourcing only makes this problem worse.

This presentation will describe the application of new technology designed to capture experimental work in a semantic framework. By paying attention to the information needed to keep data findable, accessible and understandable over time, it is possible to improve R&D efficiency and productivity. We will show how standards can be used to create highly customized and complete descriptions of experimental work; increasing the value of data to the drug company, its regulators, and ultimately patients.

Prosolia and Indigo BioSystems Come Together to Create FireFly(TM) Data Conversion Software for Mass Spectrometers

Posted : Tuesday, 06 Jan 2009 19:38:45 GMT
Author : Prosolia, Inc.
Category : Press Release

Click here to view the article on The Earth Times site.

INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 6 IN-Prosolia-Indigo

INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Thermo Scientific LTQ mass spectrometer and Omni Spray (R) Ion Source users now have the capability to convert their large data sets into file formats compatible with third party software using FireFly(TM) data conversion software.

FireFly is a software program that extracts and builds data sets from proprietary data systems using Indigo BioSystems proprietary data conversion algorithms into file formats compatible with BioMAP, a third party image visualization and processing software program available for free on the internet.

"Indigo BioSystems is pleased to partner with Prosolia to integrate our data management and open format technology with their breakthrough imaging systems. Prosolia's tools allow scientists to generate unprecedented amounts of exceptionally valuable data," says Randy Julian, President and co-founder
of Indigo BioSystems. "Indigo's tools allow that data to be captured, used and shared. Together we ensure that imaging mass spectrometry data will have a significant impact on key decisions in biological R&D."

FireFly was created in order to visualize the multi-dimensional data sets, Prosolia's Omni Spray Ion Source can routinely generate in combination with the Thermo Scientific LTQ series mass spectrometers equipped with the Xcalibur(TM) 2.0 data system.

"As Prosolia continues to build upon the Omni Spray Ion Source product and produce advanced platforms, such as the Omni Spray 2-D, the utilization of data management and conversion programs will be essential to integrating Prosolia's technologies to the variety of instrumentation that is available to
end-users today," says Justin Wiseman, Prosolia's Director of Research and Development. "The release of FireFly(TM) with Indigo BioSystems represents our commitment to developing reliable and universal research tools for mass spectrometry that complement our Omni Spray products."

"The key to Indigo's approach is to make lab data accessible by combining open data formats with globally accessible data repositories. Imaging mass spectrometry represents a special challenge due to the volume and complexity of a typical data," says Julian. "Using open formats ensure that image analysis and processing will be possible regardless of the brand of detector used with the Prosolia source. Having high performance data interchange technology means that labs will not be choked by the volume of data generated in these experiments, and that results can be shared freely with collaborators
and contractors regardless of locale."

For more information on FireFly or Omni Spray Ion Sources contact Prosolia at 317.278.6171.

Prosolia, Inc. was established in 2003 to commercialize technology arising from the laboratory of Professor R. Graham Cooks, Aston Laboratories of Mass Spectrometry at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. Professor Cooks and his research team have been innovators in the field of Mass Spectrometry for many years. Prosolia's first product line, Omni Spray Ion Source utilizes the revolutionary ambient ionization technology known as Desorption Electrospray Ionization (DESI). DESI is a simple, sensitive, gentle, and versatile ionization method that allows for the direct and rapid sampling of
surfaces without any sample preparation.

Indigo BioSystems is the developer of a new data management infrastructure for experimental research and especially for work conducted in the pharmaceutical industry. Indigo's primary data solution, known as "Rubicon," can dramatically increase research scientist productivity and facilitate accurate, rapid decision-making with complex instrumental methods. Indigo's approach is based on technology developed within the pharmaceutical industry and based on open data formats from international standards bodies. Founded in 2004, Indigo was incubated by the Ventures group of Eli Lilly & Co. until
early 2006. Indigo is now an independent, privately-held Indiana corporation.

SOURCE Prosolia, Inc.

Indigo BioSystems Successfully Tests First Globally Accessible CRO Data Integration System
Hosted system provides data interchange software as a service

Posted : Monday, December 22, 2008
Author : Indigo BioSystems
Category : Press Release

Click here to download the article.

CARMEL, IN. December 22, 2008-Indigo

Indigo BioSystems, Inc. today announced that it has successfully tested its Rubicon data repository software to interchange data between contract laboratories in China and one of its pharmaceutical clients, a large drug company in the US. The system was used to transfer raw instrument data generated at the CRO laboratory to the pharmaceutical company scientists for integration into drug discovery data analysis systems. The exchange of complex 3-dimensional instrument data is known as an impediment to gain the efficiencies sought by outsourcing to contract laboratories. The size of these files makes the delivery by e-mail nearly impossible; instead, scientists resort to exchanging summary files on paper or PDF files, giving up in the process very valuable information that can be used to make better and faster product decisions. “Our engineering group has tested exchanging files as large as 4 GB,” said Rubicon Product Manager, Dr. Amy Tabert, “the exchanges have been quick and easy and the response time for the users has been reliably fast.”

The CRO integration testing has now involved 50 different scientists in 20 different organizations interchanging hundreds of instrument files. Dr. Randall Julian, President and co-founder of Indigo BioSystems said “Rubicon has been used to manage millions of instrument files collected inside drug companies, and now we have shown the same approach helps integrate data collected by outside collaborators. As the industry increasingly relies on contract laboratories for their R&D efforts, mechanisms to exchange instrument data seamlessly and easily become a necessity to obtain the expected value from outsourcing.”

In their quest to find new drugs faster, the industry is looking more carefully for ways to expedite the R&D process. The use of multiple external collaborators, from CROs to academic institutions, serves as a way to accelerate the process. “The expected gains, however, cannot be obtained without the proper exchange of data,” said Mike Lee, President of Milestone Development Services. “What Indigo BioSystems has developed,” he added, “has the potential to deliver the promised efficiencies of outsourcing and the accelerated results the industry is seeking.”

The Rubicon hosted system is now available for use on a service basis with pricing options for both project-based and continuous data requirements.

Old News
October 27-30: Indigo will demonstrate Rubicon at the 2008 CPSA meeting. Dr. Randy Julian will speak on "An Integrated Turn-Key Solution for Large Scale Data Management"
September 14-19: Dr. Randy Julian will present a paper on "Beyond ISR" at the "Applied Pharmaceutical Analysis" at the Conference Center of the Harvard Medical School
July 30, 2008: Indigo will be at the "Applied Pharmaceutical Software Meeting" Sheraton Bucks County 400 Oxford Valley Rd., Langhorne, PA
June 1-5, 2008: Visit the Indigo BioSystems Booth at ASMS - Colorado Convention Center Denver, Colorado
April 23-25, 2008: HUPO-PSI Spring Meeting on Data Standards - Toledo, Spain
February 7-8, 2008: Indigo BioSystems at AAPS Meeting on Incurred Sample Reanalysis - Hyatt Regency Crystal City Arlington, VA
October 22-25, 2007: Indigo BioSystems At CPSA - Langhorne, PA
June 3-7, 2007: Indigo BioSystems at ASMS - Indianapolis, IN
October 17-19, 2006: Indigo BioSystems At CPSA - Princeton, NJ
September 25-27, 2006: HUPO PSI Meeting - Washington DC
August 1, 2006: Indigo BioSystems Expands Its Product Development Team
May 28-June 1, 2006: Indigo BioSystems announces the launch of its new product at ASMS Seattle
April 21-23, 2006: HUPO PSI Meeting - San Francisco
September, 2005: Indigo Reports on mzData and analysisXML at HUPO World Congress - Munich