DoubleTwist, Inc. today announced the release of Version 4.0 of its Clustering and
Alignment Tools (CAT), industry leading software that enables the rapid, accurate
clustering and alignment of Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) within large databases of
genomic information. DoubleTwist also announced that it had formed a distribution
alliance with Hitachi, Ltd. of Japan granting Hitachi exclusive distribution rights to
CAT for the year 2000 in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia. Further,
DoubleTwist has executed a memorandum of understanding to give Hitachi non-
exclusive distribution rights through September 2000 for Prophecy(TM) -- the DoubleTwist
annotated human genome database and associated software.
Hitachi Agreement
Hitachi will customize the DoubleTwist products with respect to the language of the
Asian customers, and sell and support the product in the Asia-Pacific region. Hitachi
also offers enterprise information technology solutions that will help pharmaceutical
company purchasers of the software integrate the products into their existing
technology platforms.
"This agreement represents a great opportunity for DoubleTwist to expand its markets
internationally with a partner that is a global leader in the field of information
technology," said Stephen Sanders, Vice President of Worldwide Sales for DoubleTwist,
Inc.
"We are very pleased to become the exclusive distributor for DoubleTwist's industry-
leading CAT software, which provides us with the opportunity to become a pioneer in
offering cutting-edge bioinformatics solutions within the Asia-Pacific market," said Dr.
Hiroya Taguchi, Chief Executive Officer of the Life Science Group at Hitachi, Ltd.
CAT Version 4.0
DoubleTwist's CAT software enables users to rapidly and precisely cluster and align
high volumes of EST's and partial gene sequences into full-length gene sequences
suitable for gene indexing and other applications for drug discovery. The new Version
4.0 provides several advantages over early editions of this tool:
・ Improved performance
・ Integration of quality scores for base calls
・ Output files in XML format
・ Ability to incorporate genomic reference sequences
・ Launch Web commands from within the CAT Viewer
In addition, users can seamlessly integrate CAT Version 4.0 with their use of the agent
technology and other offerings available through the DoubleTwist.com web portal.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global
electronics companies, with fiscal 1999 (ended March 31, 2000) consolidated sales of
8,001 billion yen ($75.5 billion*). The company manufactures and markets a wide range
of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and
industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web
site at URL:http://www.hitachi.co.jp.
DoubleTwist, Inc. is an application service provider (ASP), devoted to empowering life
scientists. The company provides research environments that leverage information
technology and the World Wide Web to simplify and accelerate genomic discovery.
The company's Website, DoubleTwist.com, is an integrated genomics portal that
provides a secure and comprehensive research environment and community on the
Web. The site provides users with a number of benefits, including automated research
agents, continuous database monitoring, access to proprietary data and data mining
tools.
For more information, contact DoubleTwist, Inc. at (510) 628-0100 or e-mail info-
pr@doubletwist.com or visit URL: http://www.doubletwist.com.
|
