We recently had a customer that was interested in MasterPlex QT because his current analysis software for his Bio-Plex instrument was reporting a lot of “OOR < ” or out of range concentration values (below the lower asymptote in this case) for points on the lower end of curve. This is what you would normally expect to see for values that fall below the minimum asymptote BUT the software did not have the capability to use weighting in calculating the lower asymptote which can greatly affect points on the lower part of the curve.
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The turnout at this year’s event was fairly successful given the alert of the swine flu that is going around. Our speaker, Ali Vahedi of Aviir, Inc., gave a very nice presentation on his evaluation of the AssayCheX beads and the MasterPlex AssayCheX plugin. Not surprisingly, his findings stirred a lot of attention from the crowd. He summed it up pretty nicely by saying that he ‘felt like Darwin presenting the theory of evolution for the first time.’ Curious to know what the buzz is all about? Read the AssayCheX white paper to find out.

Luminex multiplex expression data analysis has been taken to a whole new level in this major upgrade that features a new dashboard for managing your housekeeping genes and a makeover of the entire user interface.  Other improvements include:

• Data Reporting – A highly flexible data reporting interface will allow you to create your own reports and export them in many useful formats such as CSV, Excel, or PDF.
• Professional Charts – MasterPlex EX will include a new powerful charting engine for you to create and customize your own charts.

An online social community for nearly every niche exists on the internet.  MiraiBio understands this so now, there is one for the Luminex Community, MasterPlex Community, and DNASIS Community.

In addition to the online community members, MiraiBio’s own employees will be browsing around as well joining in on all the conversations.  So whether you were just curious about something or need help troubleshooting, feel free to drop by and start a converation!

MiraiBio has heard your voice and we realize that not all customers require a perpetual license when there is only the need to use our Luminex analysis software a couple of times a year.

We are now happy to introduce the new Term Licensing options for our MasterPlex QT and GT Luminex data analysis software.  Term Licensing durations include the 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, or 24 month options.  The software license expires at the end of the purchased term and also includes all major upgrades released during the term.

For those that do not need to run analyses 24/7, this may be the cost-efficient choice for you.  To find out more details, please visit the MasterPlex QT product page or the MasterPlex GT product page at the MiraiBio Store.

The Hitachi Software MiraiBio Online Store has opened it’s doors for business on July 1st, 2008.  Currently, the product catalog includes:

• Luminex MicroPlex xTAG Microspheres (FlexMAP)
• Luminex MicroPlex Microspheres (Carboxylated)
• Luminex LumAvidin Microspheres
• Luminex SeroMAP Microspheres
• Luminex Calibration and Control Microspheres

Just like any other e-commerce site, all you have to do is add the beads you want to your shopping cart and checkout.  It just does not get any easier.

We have 3 improvements to report for DNASIS SmartNote this week, all having to do with more efficient sequence importing and exporting:

1. Accession number recognition – DNASIS SmartNote now recognizes accession numbers in sequences you import (or will ask you to enter one if you paste in a raw sequence). This gives you better control over the naming of your sequences, so you can keep better track of which results belong to which sequence.

2. Import multiple sequences at once – If you’d like to import several sequences into DNASIS SmartNote and you know their accession numbers, you can now enter them all (separated by commas). To try it out, click on “Get Sequences” under DNASIS SmartNote’s “Sequences” tab, then select “Search for sequences from NCBI Entrez” or “Search for SNPs from NCBI DB”

3. Export raw results from xTAG Software tool – For those who are using DNASIS SmartNote’s new tools for designing tagged, gene-specific oligos (GSO) for their Luminex assays using Universal Array beads, the xTAG tool can now export results as comma-separated values (CSV), so you can transfer the data to Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet programs. The output fields are: “Sequence Name”, “Bead Region” and “Oligo Sequence”

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.

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Better communication improves any relationship, so we’ve started this blog to enhance communication with our customers. We’re going to use this blog to discuss what we’re doing, how we’re doing it and why. Our goal is to offer useful information, help our customers know us better and get to know them better, talk openly about what we’re about and build trust.

We’ll be discussing Luminex instruments, assays, bioinformatics software, and anything else that helps biologists work more efficiently, particularly if it has to do with software.

Please let us know if you have an idea, topic or something you’d like us to write about.

Let’s start the conversation!