Life Scientists Celebrate Ten Years Online.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Science Advisory Board (http://www.scienceboard.net), an online community of more than 34,000 scientists, celebrates its ten-year anniversary -- making it one of the most enduring social networks on the Web.

The Science Advisory Board is a division of BioInformatics, LLC (http://www.gene2drug.com), a research and advisory firm serving more than 300 clients in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, IT, scientific publishing and finance industries.

"We take great pride in reaching this significant milestone," said Bill Kelly, President of BioInformatics, LLC. "Long before anyone used the phrase 'Web 2.0', we were leveraging the Internet to deliver online professional networking services to life science researchers."

The Science Advisory Board Website was launched in September 1997 with the goal of helping bridge the gap between the manufacturers and end-users of instruments, products and services used in advanced biological research and drug discovery.

"Our philosophy has always been to provide our members with the online tools that help them conduct their research more effectively," commented Tamara Zemlo, Ph.D., M.P.H., and Chair of the Board's Steering Committee. "By enabling scientists to collaborate with each other and to share their experiences with the community, we have created an indispensable resource used daily in labs around the world."

The Website boasts tens of thousands of pages of user-generated content in the form of white papers, blogs, a discussion forum and member-submitted reviews of products, books, databases and Websites.

"What prompted me to join The Science Advisory Board was the fact that it is a place where I could ask questions to see if anyone else in the community is having the same research problems I am having, as well as find out the 'pulse' of the scientific community as a whole, not just in my field of specialty," explained member Heather Mottaz, a researcher at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "It's like going to a large scientific meeting, only you can go whenever you feel like it."

Member scientists also participate in market research activities conducted by parent company BioInformatics, LLC. The experiences and opinions of scientific customers are an invaluable source of market intelligence to manufacturers, especially in areas such as genomics and proteomics that are characterized by rapid technological change.

BioInformatics, LLC also operates The Life Science Executive Exchange (http://www.LifeScienceExec.com) another professional networking site serving the needs of corporate managers in the biotechnology tools market.

"Together, these two valuable Web properties stake out our position as the industry's premier infomediary--brokering the exchange of valuable information between the suppliers and consumers of life science technologies, products and services," commented Kelly. "Our focus now is exploiting our existing processes for collecting market data to produce new information-based products and services that meets the crossover demand for information between the scientific and commercial segments of the market."

ABOUT BIOINFORMATICS, LLC

BioInformatics, LLC is the premier research and consulting firm serving the life science tools industry. By leveraging our global online panel of tens of thousands of biomedical researchers, we have supported more than 300 companies and provided insights that lead to better business decisions. Our assignments include assessing the size and attractiveness of markets, optimizing product configurations and pricing, validating corporate acquisitions, measuring customers' brand loyalty, and evaluating brand strength and positioning.