Digital Science & SciBite Join Forces to Harness Big Data for Life Sciences

LONDON, March 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Partners to combine text mining and data integration offerings to improve scientific research online

Digital Science, a technology company that provides software tools designed for scientists by scientists and SciBite, a scientific news and alerts service for human health and drug discovery, have signed a two-year collaboration agreement to work together on improving online research for the life sciences.

The agreement gives them access to each other's content and text mining technologies and will provide a connected approach to scientific research, starting with drug discovery and then expanding to other areas of the life sciences.

Initially, the two companies will offer their biological and chemical direct data products side-by-side to provide answers to questions like "What are the hottest new targets in a particular disease? Who is working on them and what small molecules have been disclosed in the literature, patents and beyond?" The new partners will also explore ways to integrate the biology and data integration technologies and content of SciBite with that of Digital Science's SureChem suite of patent chemistry products. This will create powerful new solutions and enhance existing offerings from across the Digital Science portfolio.

Timo Hannay, Managing Director of Digital Science said, "There is enormous potential in this partnership - we have the opportunity to correlate information from both chemical and biological data sources to speed up scientific research. This supports our goal of developing products that focus on the intersection of chemistry and biology. The social media aspect of SciBite, providing views of the top articles being read by scientific peers, also complements other Digital Science products and services."

Lee Harland, founder of SciBite said, "SciBite was founded to open up biomedical intelligence to a wider audience. By partnering with Digital Science we now have a way to connect the unique coverage of chemistry within SureChem to this rich biomedical data, and provide customers with a truly unique view of drug discovery and other life science research areas."

Notes to editors:

About SciBite:  SciBite enables users to track what's happening in the world of a drug, target, pathway or similar concept, without having to scan hundreds of different websites or databases. It uses advanced text mining to continuously scan the internet for new articles connected to key topics in biomedicine including; literature, patents, clinical trials, news, grants, jobs, blogs and social media.  The company offers a free service at http://www.scibite.com and licenses a series of products for professional and enterprise users.

About Digital Science: Digital Science is a division of Macmillan Science & Education. Launched in December 2010 to provide technology solutions for researchers, it offers a range of scientific technology and content solutions. From intelligent knowledge discovery tools to software applications for the laboratory and decision-support systems for managers, Digital Science combines world-class technology with a resolute focus on scientists and those who support the research process. SureChem is a Digital Science offering that provides patent chemistry data solutions to the scientific and professional information community.

About Macmillan Science & Education:  As part of one of the largest and best known international publishing groups in the world, the new global division of Macmillan Science and Education is characterised by seven high-quality academic, scholarly and educational businesses. The division employs more than 5,000 people, operating in more than 50 countries around the world, supporting scientists, professors, teachers, journalists, editors, writers and entrepreneurs to empower learning and discovery.