DNASIS MAX has the ability to search for homologous sequences to your sequence with BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool). BLAST finds regions of local similarity between sequences. The program compares nucleotide or protein sequences to sequence databases and calculates the statistical significance of matches. BLAST can be used to infer functional and evolutionary relationships between sequences as well as help identify members of gene families.

The following procedure guides you through utilizing BLAST against NCBI’s sequence databases.

Read the rest of this entry »

Many of the FlexMAP (now called xTAG) microsphere users relied on the TagIT software to help choose which microsphere sets to use in genetic detection assays run on the xMAP platform. When the TagIT software was removed these users no longer had a reliable way to design their assays. Well the good news is that TagIT is back!

Read the rest of this entry »

DNASIS MAX has the ability to search for homologous sequences to your sequence with Blast which is
useful in judging if the sequence is novel or even add annotations from known gene information. The following procedure guides you through utilizing Blast against an internal sequence database.

Read the rest of this entry »

DNASIS MAX uses the Primer3 engine for designing primers, which is one of the most frequently used procedures in daily research.  The following procedure guides you through designing primers utilizing the DNASIS MAX interface.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hitachi Software’s MiraiBio Group has recently launched 2 new software tools in the DNASIS SmartNote web application: the Allele Specific Primer Extension (ASPE) Assay Design tool and the xTAG Software (formerly TagIT) tool. These tools are important time savers for those who are interested in multiplexing their SNP or genotyping assays on the Luminex xMAP (also sold by Bio-Rad as the Bio-Plex) platform.

Read the rest of this entry »

MiraiBio has gone online with software. We are pleased to introduce a revolutionary way to store and analyze your sequences and share them with colleagues.

What can SmartNote offer to you?

Read the rest of this entry »

DNASIS SmartNote was recently released to a limited group of scientists and attracted some great feedback. Here’s a quick summary:

Some users said they needed more help getting started using it. This is not surprising, since DNASIS SmartNote’s design is innovative in two ways – it’s a meta-application (an application that uses other applications) and it’s also the first bioinformatics tool we know of that combines a lab notebook, sequence analysis and social networking.

Others said they want to be able to import sequences in formats other than FASTA. I’m happy to report that GenBank support will soon be available on the live site.

Finally, we are starting to get requests to support specific workflows, such as designing primers for mutagenesis. One user suggested adding a view that shows both DNA and protein sequences. We would love to hear from other DNASIS SmartNote users so we know where to focus our efforts to best meet users’ needs. So please send us feedback or post to this shared blog. Together, we can make DNASIS SmartNote even better!