ARMONK, N.Y.–(BW HealthWire)–Nov. 29, 2000–IBM announced today that
it
has made its first equity investment in a life sciences company. IBM is
investing in Structural Bioinformatics, Inc. (SBI), whose advanced
three-dimensional protein models make it possible for pharmaceutical
researchers to design and develop disease-fighting drugs faster and at
lower cost. As SBI’s strategic information technology (IT) partner, IBM will
provide
hardware and software, including a high-performance cluster of
eServer(1)
xSeries(1) servers running Linux(2). The new Linux-based system will
enhance SBI’s ability to perform high-resolution protein modeling,
including dynamics calculations that track the changing shapes of
protein
molecules and shed light on the role of individual chemical structures
in
human disease.

The two companies will collaborate to make the content of SBI’s
extensive
databases of protein structural information more readily accessible to
researchers worldwide via the Internet on a subscription basis. Joint
marketing efforts are also planned, and SBI will be able to draw on
IBM’s
extensive research expertise in computational biology.

“The average cost of developing a new drug today is $500 million, and
the
development cycle can take up to 15 years,” said Dr. Caroline Kovac,
vice
president of IBM Life Sciences. “SBI’s high-quality protein structures
and
computational analyses can significantly speed up the cycle and help
get
new treatments for many of today’s diseases to patients faster.”

Protein Structures Hold Key to Curing Diseases
The successful mapping of the human genome has accelerated the study of
proteins and protein-protein interactions, or proteomics, by enabling
rapid
conversion of gene sequence data into protein structures. The more than
one
million proteins in the human body regulate the structure and function
of
cells, tissues and organs. They also play a key role in triggering and
de-activating genetically-linked diseases such as cancer, AIDS,
Alzheimers,
and diabetes.

SBI, which maintains some of the world’s largest proprietary databases
of
atomic-resolution 3-D protein structures, provides proteomic
information to
pharmaceutical researchers for use in designing molecules that interact
with proteins associated with diseases. Access to this information
facilitates the development of powerful drugs that bind to proteins,
either
activating or blocking their activities.

SBI’s products are among the first “in silico” approaches to drug
discovery, allowing researchers to analyze protein models and predict
interactions between proteins and chemicals using information
technology,
rather than performing time-consuming and costly laboratory
experiments.

IBM’s DB2(1) Universal Database will become SBI’s strategic development
platform. IBM WebSphere(1) will provide the Internet software
infrastructure for accessing protein structures on the Web.
Additionally,
SBI will begin marketing its Variome(3) structural variant database
modules
to pharmaceutical companies in early 2001 with DB2 as the preferred
database.

“We selected IBM for our IT needs because of its complementary
technologies and expertise in managing volume and complexity – both
characteristics of proteomic data,” said Dr. Edward T. Maggio,
chairman,
president and chief executive officer of SBI. “Our partnership with
IBM
will allow us to expand the content of our protein databases, while
providing our customers with more comprehensive tools for analysis of
proteins.”

The minority equity investment in SBI is the latest initiative by IBM’s
Life Sciences business unit, which was formed in August to form
partnerships and develop IT solutions for biotechnology, genomic,
pharmaceutical, e-health, and other life sciences industries.

About Structural Bioinformatics, Inc.
Structural Bioinformatics is a world leader in computational proteomics
—
the large-scale generation and use of protein structure and protein
structural information. The company has developed advanced technologies
to
generate highly refined three-dimensional structural models of proteins
from primary genetic information and commercializes these technologies
through its structural database products and through drug discovery
collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies. SBI has offices
and
research facilities in San Diego, CA; Cambridge, MA; and Horsholm,
Denmark.
More information about SBI can be found through the website,
www.strubix.com.

About IBM Life Sciences
IBM’s Life Sciences business unit brings together the company’s
high-performance computing, e-business and data and storage management
resources, and research expertise to offer new solutions for the
fast-growing life sciences market. IBM is the world’s largest
information
technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses
innovate. The fastest way to get more information about IBM Life
Sciences
is through the website,
www-4.ibm.com/software/webservers/lifesciences/.

(1) Indicates trademark or registered trademark of IBM Corporation. (2)
Indicates trademark or registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. (3)
Indicates trademark or registered trademark of respective companies.

Slashdot readers talk about IBM’s Open Source Project called Daisy, which does many of the things that Transmeta does.

From Canada NewsWire:
Mikotel Networks Inc. announced today that the
Company has retained Lightstream Technologies Inc. of Markham, Ontario to
manage the beta program for Mikotel’s plug & play rack mount network appliance
prior to commercializing the technology.

Mikotel manufactures network appliances based on the Linux open source,
open architecture operating system.

From BusinessWire: As part of its continuing commitment to open standards, Evans & Sutherland
Wednesday announced that the company’s PC-based image generator, simFUSION, now has the capability to
run SGI’s IRIS Performer software.
Using Linux drivers that access the OpenGL API, E&S has made it possible to run this popular software on E&S simFUSION PC hardware.

From a column at LinuxPlanet: “On the ride to Washington for Thanksgiving, my wife and I were amused by the fact that my company
(which comprises: me) has actually made money from Linux. I write books about it, the occasional
article, this column. These things cost me less to do than I am paid to do them. Ergo, I make money
from Linux.

Which caused me to wonder if maybe I’m turning more profit from Linux than is, say, Red Hat Software,
which, when it posts earnings next month, is expected to lose 2 cents per share, according to the
analysts …

I ended up with no evidence that any of the Linux companies that are publicly traded is turning a
nickel’s profit. The non-public companies I’ve talked with are facing hard times as well. One or two are
just about out of money, with not much coming in. There may be some others — companies that resell
books and T-shirts and distributions at discount — who are doing okay.” (VA Linux, mentioned in the article, owns NewsForge.)

From Canada NewsWire: ATI Technologies Inc. today unveiled its set-top box Technology Access Program, which is
designed to enable third party software and hardware system integrators with
the necessary technology to support ATI’s set-top box components.
The initial TAP partners are Metro Link and BSQUARE. Metro Link is a
specialist in embedded Linux and VxWorks, while BSQUARE specializes in Windows
CE and Microsoft TV.

Slashdotters discuss this request: “I am a senior Linux developer/system/network guy at a
rapidly growing startup. Part of my resonsibilities is to help educate new
aspiring Linux folks and otherwise evanglize the use of Open Source within
our company. I thought a great way to do this would be with informal brown
bag sessions, once or twice a week. The only thing I’m missing is some generic Linux class
education material that I can talk to … I’ve been searching the net for weeks
now and the only stuff I’ve found is online tutorials (that can’t be downloaded) and Linux
materials that people are actually charging for! In the wonderful world of open source software,
where are the open source education materials?”

From a column at LinuxPlanet.com: “On the ride to Washington for Thanksgiving, my wife and I were amused by the fact that my company has actually made money from Linux. I write books about it, the occasional
article, this column. These things cost me less to do than I am paid to do them. Ergo, I make money
from Linux.” (VA Linux, mentioned in the story, owns NewsForge.)

“Thanks to the US’s currently being gripped by its unprecedented and seemingly endless case of EDS
(electoral dysfunctional situation), I find myself feeling more and more like I’ve slipped into a parallel
universe or a really bad science fiction story where everything is reversed and the abnormal has become
commonplace. This frame of mind has me pondering some of the big “what if” questions about Linux and
the computer industry in general, and how a change here or there could have resulted in a whole different
story–or could still do so. Call it a new-found respect for the whims of probability and chaos, if you will.”
Lou Grinzo, editor of Linuxprogramming.com, posted this story at Linuxtoday.com.

“As first reported in August, Yahoo! is providing its email
encryption option through a deal with Zixit, a Dallas-based email
encryption firm. Yahoo! will rout encrypted email through Zixit’s
SecureDelivery.com Web site. Yahoo! and Zixit representatives
declined to comment on the public availability of the service and
would not say whether it was an across-the-board launch or a
temporary test.” From ZDCOUK.