There are always rumors floating around about what next market segment Microsoft will explore.  Will Microsoft take on Google?  Will Microsoft develop an iPhone-like device?  Will Microsoft become a dominant force in bioinformatics?  Wait a minute, bioinformatics?  That's hardly the same realm as search engines or consumer communications, but it does appear to be a field that Microsoft is interested in.  Take a look at the web site for their Cambridge, U.K. research lab, and you'll see Computational Biology listed as one of the areas of interest.  A check of their job openings shows that they are hiring people with bioinformatics backgrounds.  So, can we expect someday for a release of "MS Bioinformatics Suite" or have the annoying Clippy animation ask if we need help processing DNA sequence data?  Probably not, but there is no doubt that Microsoft has noticed that life sciences related computation is a growing field and doesn't want to be left out.  To that end, they were key in forming the BioIT Alliance, a collaborative group consisting of Microsoft and various life science technology providers. 

To learn more about the BioIT alliance, The LabMan spoke to Rudy Potenzone, Industry Technology Strategist for Microsoft.  Rudy indicates that the BioIT alliance was formed in the middle of 2006 to promote a greater level of partnership among providers of bioinformatics tools and to inform them about new technology developments at Microsoft.  Member companies include those focused solely on bioinformatics software as well as laboratory equipment companies whose products include control or data processing software.  The common link is the development of software-containing products aimed at the life sciences market.  Microsoft feels that its core Office products, such as Excel and Word, have long been intertwined with many bioinformatics software applications.  New developments involving and following Vista and Office 2007 will transform those products significantly, so Microsoft felt it was essential to educate bioinformatics providers about their new technology directions. 

There is no cost for a company to become a member of the BioIT Alliance.  The relationship is essentially a co-marketing agreement between a member company and Microsoft.  There are opportunities for members to attend various workshops, seminars and discussion groups focused on the use of various tools or future developments.  Sharing of ideas and applications among members is encouraged.  Rudy says that members often see the use of Microsoft tools in ways they haven?t previous envisioned, such as integrating the Vista workflow foundation with the control of robotic devices.  One recent project with Alliance member Scripps Research Institute involved building a collaborative molecular environment (CME) client-based tool that lets researchers share 3-D information via Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Vista.

Rudy expects that soon we'll begin to see bioinformatics products emerge that take advantage new Microsoft capabilities, and ideally this will provide the structure for many more products to be linked in ways that were not possible or just too difficult in the past.  He mentioned that Thermo-Fisher has recently announced that it has established a working relationship with Microsoft aimed at developing next-generation laboratory knowledge management, based on open XML standards.  Improving interaction and interoperability among bioinformatics applications was one of the founding visions of the BioIT Alliance, according to Rudy, and he hopes to see additional and improved open standards come out of Alliance efforts.  He made it clear in our discussion that Microsoft was not trying to unilaterally establish new standards, but was working with those involved in current standard efforts, such as those being guided by NIST and the SAFE consortium for electronic signatures.  The ultimate goal is better information flow among scientists to accelerate the rate of scientific discovery and development.

The LabMan knows from experience that standards and interoperability don't happen overnight or by chance, but only as the result of a lot of dedicated effort.  The constructive support of an industry heavyweight such as Microsoft may help encourage wider adoption and move efforts ahead faster.  That can't be a bad thing, if done well. 

Thanks to Velocity 11 for sponsoring this month's blog! 

Until next time,

Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto