INCOGEN Releases Beta Version of VIBE-Ed Bioinformatics Education Software.

Product of Phase II Award from the National Science Foundation

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- INCOGEN has announced the second beta release of the VIBE-Ed Bioinformatics Education Software. In 2005 the company was awarded a two-year $500,000 Phase II SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation to create an educational version of their industry-leading bioinformatics analysis workflow platform, VIBE.

The VIBE-Ed project addresses the lack of formal bioinformatics teaching software at universities. This lack of tools creates a bottleneck in the training process of new bioinformaticists, especially as the number of bioinformatics students continues to grow. Based on the existing INCOGEN visual programming research workflow software, VIBE, the VIBE Education Edition (VIBE-Ed) software focuses on exposing students to a variety of bioinformatics tools through an environment that promotes hands-on experimentation to gain an in-depth understanding.

"As a former professor of mathematics and bioinformatics and as the new lead on the VIBE-Ed project, I am very excited about the new release which is based on a whole, newly developed framework that gives the application a shiny new look with many new features," remarked Dr. Heather Sasinowska, INCOGEN.

This release offers several improvements that allow users to very quickly learn the terminology and the fundamentals of bioinformatics while using the software. VIBE-Ed now includes a hot-linked glossary and a sophisticated user feedback system to help guide students through the process of creating a bioinformatics workflow, running it, and then interpreting the results. Also, key links have been added throughout the documentation that will open certain components in the VIBE application to give instant access to an item in question.

The software will be co-marketed with Apple Computer, Inc.

VIBE-Ed will be beta-tested at several universities, including California Institute of Technology, University of Delaware, University of Nebraska, and The College of William and Mary. INCOGEN is interested in recruiting more beta sites to use the software in the classroom free of charge.

For additional information about the VIBE-Ed project, please visit: www.incogen.com/vibe-ed.

About INCOGEN:

INCOGEN, Inc. provides state-of-the-art software and industry-leading professional services to scientists involved in pharmaceutical, agricultural and biotechnology research. The suite of INCOGEN tools includes GenePort[R], a web-browser-based information mining and management portal; VIBE[R], an extensible bioinformatics visual programming and workflow management platform; and HDFR[TM] and Magelan[TM], two image analysis software packages. INCOGEN Professional Services provide scientists with industry-leading technological expertise to assist researchers with every phase of design, development and implementation of their informatics infrastructures. The company is committed to supplying the research community with tools to optimize the analysis, mining, and management of life science data.