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MORRISVILLE - The field of bioinformatics is exploding, says Andy Balber, associate director of Duke University's Office of Science and Technology.
For the past two to three years, most pharmaceutical and biotech companies have been desperately searching for people to develop software programs aimed at managing huge amounts of complex data, he says. And with DNA testing and the Human Genome Project continuing to capture headlines, Balber predicts that a lot more software developers will turn their attention to bioinformatics.
Morrisville-based PPD Inc. is one company that's cashing in on the bioinformatics field.
PPD Inc., which has 47 offices in 19 countries, provides contract and consulting services through three subsidiaries: PPD Discovery, PPD Development and PPD Virtual.
PPD Informatics, a division of PPD Development, provides pharmaceutical and biotech companies with a complete range of data management solutions based on its own proprietary software, says Liz Rolison, vice president of PPD Informatics.
According to Rolison, the growing need to collect, transform and merge vast amounts of clinical data led PPD Informatics to release new versions of its top-selling software, TableTrans and CrossGraphs, earlier this month.
TableTrans 2.0 uses a graphical user interface (GUI) to create icons representing various data transformations common to clinical research. By putting these icons in a particular order so that they link together, a programmer can import data from ASCII, dBase, SAS transport files, Microsoft Excel or Oracle, and the product will automatically generate the necessary code to transform - or convert it - into a single format explains Rolinson.
Programmers in a clinical setting spend 80 percent of their time transforming data, notes Rolinson.
TableTrans costs about $40,000 and is designed for servers running on Windows, Windows NT or Unix platforms.
CrossGraphs 2.1, designed for desktop or server use, is a lot less expensive. Available for use on Windows, Windows NT, Solaris, HP-UX and Mac operating...