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!