Bioinformatics Group

Promega Corporation Bioinformatics Group

Location: Madison, WI, USA

Name/Title: Monika Wood, M.S., Manager, R&D Bioinformatics (first.lastATpromega.com)

Links: Promega

Group size: Two. Monika Wood heads the group and supports primarily molecular modeling, protein & small molecule engineering. Ethan Strauss supports primarily sequence analysis, database design, tools development. Separate IT department manages applications upgrades, systems, network.

Environment: We are part of the R&D Department and primarily support ~100 biologists at our WI headquarters and ~20 chemists at our CA site. We also serve as liaison to the IT Department. We have started to develop tools for external customers. We contribute to courses at Promega's non-profit institute BCTI, UW-Madison, and Madison Area Technical College.

Tools: Lasergene, Vector NTI, OLIGO, ChemDraw, BLAST & EMBOSS (BioTeam iNquiry portal), GEMS Launcher (gene regulation; Genomatix), InsightII & Discovery Studio (molecular modeling; Accelrys), several graphics apps.

Pertinent hardware info: One dual-Xeon dual-boot Windows/Linux workstation (for molecular modeling). One dual-Opteron 5GB RAM Linux server hosted off-site by BioTeam at Boston Datacenters (for local blast). One shared R&D workstation for general use of scientific & graphics applications not licensed department-wide. Desktops are PCs.

Training: New employee orientation with customized follow-up training. Hands-on group training after release of major software updates. Have dedicated 16 PC training room. Lots of ad-hoc one-on-one training. Needs improvement.

Bioinformatics support model: Research collaboration, Data analysis, Consultancy, Software development, Database development, Training.

Funding model: R&D Department budget.

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