Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Inforsense integrates virtual outsourcing for GSK

By Mass High Tech Staff

Analytical software developer InforSense Ltd. has closed on a pilot project in which the company enabled “virtual drug discovery through virtual outsourcing of data analysis” for pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, the two companies announced.

InforSense is working with a handful of partners to pull off the project. Distributed computing technology using the European SIMDAT Grid was used for the virtual outsourcing, combining Internet security from NEC, InforSense workflows, GRIA service-oriented infrastructure and data analysis from BioFocus DPI and Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Cambridge-based InforSense last made news in Mass High Tech in 2006 with a number of deals. At the time, the company reported a three-year original equipment manufacturer agreement with Waltham’s Thermo Electron Corp. Under the agreement, InforSense was to provide its KDE platform to Thermo for integration into the BioWorks package for proteomics data analysis.

Founded in 1999, privately held InforSense operates its North American headquarters in Cambridge and a European headquarters in London. The company develops analytical software for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, consumer goods, health care, financial services, manufacturing and communications industries.

SIMDAT is funded by the European Commission through the Information Society Technologies Programme.