Agilent's software speeds up gene localisation

Agilent has upgraded its GeneSpring GX 7.3 gene expression informatics software, giving it new features designed to allow researchers to understand faster what their results really mean.

It makes this possible through faster access to and visualisation of biological relevance using the software's full-gene ontology information and browser.

GeneSpring GX 7.3 also allows researchers to quickly determine if a gene is a member of a pathway, and whether a gene list is enriched with genes that are in a particular pathway.

Designed for the biologist and the statistician alike, itis capable of importing, visualizing, and analyzing hundreds of thousands of variation measurements simultaneously, for rapid localization of disease or phenotype markers.

"GeneSpring GX has become the industry standard in gene expression software," said Jordan Stockton, informatics marketing manager, Agilent Life Sciences and Chemical Analysis.

"We originally built this software to give users the ability to understand the results of statistical analysis in a biological context, and this latest release extends that functionality to a new class of biologists, clinicians and research directors."

With user supplied pedigree information, GeneSpring GT 7.3 enables users to calculate maximum likelihood and estimate recombination frequencies for millions of variations.

Linkage can be estimated for combinations of individual measured variations, haplotype blocks that span measured variations, or observed phenotypes.

The new release also provides higher confidence in the results through more significant clustering and trees; bootstrapping and complete, average and single linkage; new volcano and box plot visualizations; and improved error model for two-color data.

GeneSpring GX 7.3 is compatible with all major commercial gene expression platforms, including Agilent's recently introduced dual-mode one-color/two-color platform.