New informatics system helps scientists save time, reduce IT costs, and catalyse innovation

Symyx Technologies, Inc. has announced a significant new release of the Symyx Isentris^® informatics system that provides many new, productivity-enhancing capabilities. Isentris 3.1 gives scientists the freedom to create, manage, and share fully searchable local databases and to work offline. This functionality goes well beyond Symyx's industry-leading ISIS software, and version 3.1 provides an ideal transition point for ISIS-to-Isentris migration.

"We are seeing significant adoption and transition to Isentris as a result of productivity- and ROI-enhancing capabilities over ISIS," said Dr. Trevor Heritage, President of Symyx Software. "Isentris pushes information to scientists even before they ask the question; it offers a unique self-help approach to data, a dynamic reaction planner, improved reporting capabilities, and numerous other innovations. Now, with Isentris 3.1 replacing ISIS workflows, customers can complete the transition to Isentris - a system that is superior to ISIS in meeting the informatics needs of today's scientists."

New Isentris functionality includes the creation, management and sharing of fully searchable local databases with full insert, update, and delete capabilities. This improves R&D productivity by enabling researchers to capture, annotate, and explore data in a familiar environment. In addition, researchers can easily travel with their data or share project-critical information with external collaborators such as Contract Research Organisations. Local databases support business-critical workflows in the exchange and communication of scientific information between scientists and project groups.

Isentris provides highly interactive views of scientific information in a self-service environment. Scientists can filter, sort, and cluster data themselves to see exactly what they need to make decisions. By giving scientists the freedom to help themselves to corporate and commercial information while tracking their own insights locally, wherever, whenever and however they want to, Isentris saves time, reduces IT costs, and catalyses innovation in today's R&D labs.

To improve decision confidence and R&D productivity a suite of exciting new features are additionally included in the powerful informatics system. Isentris 3.1 offers support for local databases enhancing creativity and collaboration through creation of local databases incorporating common file formats, data sources, personal forms, reports, annotations, etc. The facility for molecule and reaction clustering enables you to make better decisions by quickly and efficiently grouping search results. To speed hypothesis testing by searching and filtering chemical structures in Excel spreadsheets - Isentris 3.1 offers chemical structure searching in Microsoft^® Excel^® spreadsheets. Through enabling molecule- and reaction-based enumeration of results into Isentris for Excel - Isentris 3.1 helps accelerate lead generation/optimisation by creating and exploring virtual libraries of compounds. New support facilities for polymers, mixtures, and formulations allow you to capture, store, and search even more of your intellectual property in areas including biologics, chemicals and consumer goods. To improve the capture and utilisation of scientific information as well as facilitate the development of custom data handling applications that are easy to use and have a consistent look-and-feel - Isentris 3.1 provides writable .NET controls for inserting, updating, and deleting data.

As part of the latest 3.1 release of Symyx Draw, Isentris 3.1 supports the creation and editing of Sgroup queries (polymers, formulations and mixtures), Rgroup (Markush) queries, and 3D queries. Isentris 3.1 also offers new name-to-structure/structure-to-name conversions; enhanced sketch cleaning; and powerful add-in software for converting structures, calculating molecular properties and assessing spectroscopic parameters.

Symyx offers a fully supported, phased, low-risk transition path from ISIS to Isentris, preserving existing investments in Symyx chemistry representation, chemical registry and inventory, as well as enabling customers to pursue migration at their own pace, as budget and IT resources permit. Compatible files and migration tools, along with coexistence of data, applications, and infrastructure, all facilitate the most straightforward and cost-effective transition.