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SPSS & DUKE UNIVERSITY JOIN TO ADVANCE USE OF DATA MINING

With the recent high-profile successes resulting from the Human Genome Project, the attention being paid to bioinformatics is perhaps surpassed only by the voluminous amounts of data being generated by the Project and associated research. And it is because of these two factors--the rapidly increasing interest in bioinformatics and the large volumes of data--that bioinformatics research facilities and makers of advanced analytical software are forming pioneering relationships.

Two such organizations, SPSS Inc., and the Duke Bioinformatics Shared Resource (DBSR) at Duke University, recently signed an agreement formalizing a partnership under the SPSS Alliance Program.

The terms of the agreement call for SPSS Inc.'s, Business Intelligence division to give DBSR user licenses, on-site training and technical support for Clementine, SPSS Inc.'s, market-leading data mining technology workbench. In return, DBSR will use Clementine to analyze scientific data (including microarray data, combinatorial chemistry data and clinical data) and will share with SPSS its methodology and experience in using the Clementine software.

The SPSS Alliance Program is dedicated to identifying and forming cooperative relationships with the end goal of advancing the use of industry-leading analytical technology. Among other tasks, SPSS and its Alliance partners work together to develop and expand Clementine's applications and functionality. "The large volumes of data being generated by technologies such as High Throughput Screening, combinatorial chemistry and microarrays provide a fertile ground for business tools to branch out into the scientific realm," said Dr. Petra Scheffer, SPSS Science senior marketing manager. "While SPSS Science has a long history of developing analytic and graphing tools for various scientific disciplines, this is a new direction for Clementine, which to date has not been widely used in the scientific world.

However, because of its ability to work with massive amounts of data and its easy-to-understand user interface, Clementine should prove to be as invaluable to bioinformatics researchers as it has been to business users." Founded in 1987 as the Molecular Biology Database Facility, the mission of DBSR is to provide the infrastructure and guidance for valuable bioinformatics databases and computational tools that promote biotechnological innovation. To achieve this mission, DBSR strives to provide leading-edge computational resources and assists researchers in exploiting high performance computing.

"The Human Genome Project has produced volumes of data unlike anything before," said Dr. Simon Lin, manager of DBSR. "Because of this, researchers face a dramatic change in the methods and tools they must use to analyze and understand the data being produced. I believe that data mining will prove to be a central part of bioinformatics." According to Kim Johnson, director of DBSR, the agreement with SPSS Inc., will benefit both DBSR and the larger bioinformatics community in several ways.

"First, it saves us months of preparation and development time because of the algorithms already available in Clementine and the advanced user interface, which enables new users to get up and running much faster. Second, it fills a void that exists due to a lack of serious analytical products for bioinformatics data.

Finally, it gives us access to a data mining tool that we wouldn't otherwise have because of budget restraints."

About Clementine

Clementine, SPSS Inc.'s, enterprise-strength data mining workbench, helps businesses improve the profitability of customer relationships through indepth understanding of data. Organizations use the insight gained from Clementine to retain profitable customers, identify up-and cross-selling opportunities, attract new customers, detect fraud, reduce risk and improve government service delivery. Clementine can help businesses better understand their customers' online behavior and, as a result, improve Web site design, increase e-store sales and deliver online services more effectively.

Clementine was the first data mining workbench aimed at business users and is consistently acknowledged by users and analysts as the leading visual rapid modeling environment for data mining. Clementine has established a leading position in the data mining market and is used in a wide range of industries including e-commerce, telecommunications, finance, retail, health care, government and higher education. More than 500 organizations worldwide use Clementine including British Telecommunications, Unilever, Provident Financial and e-Dialog.

Additional Clementine information is available by calling 800-543-2185 or online at www.spss.com/clementine.

About the SPSS Business Intelligence division

The SPSS Business Intelligence division helps people solve business problems using statistics and data mining. This predictive technology enables our customers in the commercial, higher education and public sectors to make better decisions and improve results. SPSS Business Intelligence software and services are used successfully in a wide range of applications, including customer attraction and retention, cross-selling, survey research, fraud detection, enrollment management, Web site performance, forecasting and scientific research. SPSS Business Intelligence's market- leading products and product lines include SPSS, Clementine, AnswerTree, DecisionTime, SigmaPlot and LexiQuest.

For more information, visit our Web site at www.spssbi.com.

About SPSS Inc.

SPSS Inc. headquartered in Chicago, IL, USA., is a multinational computer software company providing technology that transforms data into insight through the use of predictive analytics and other data mining techniques. The company's solutions and products enable organizations to manage the future by learning from the past, understanding the present, as well as predicting potential problems and opportunities.

For more information, visit www.spss.com.

About Duke Bioinformatics Shared Resource

The Duke Bioinformatics Shared Resource is operated by Cancer Center Information Systems and was established by a grant from North Carolina Biotechnology Center. The resource was upgraded in 1999 with enhanced computational capabilities and expanded user base. This resource provides the infrastructure and guidance for valuable bioinformatics databases and computational tools that will promote biotechnological innovation at Duke and throughout the region. The mission of Duke Bioinformatics Shared Resource is to:

• Advance bioinformatics and molecular biological information infrastructure;
• Enable solutions to important problems in molecular biology by providing leading-edge computational resources;
• Educate researchers in bioinformatics; and
• Assist the researchers in exploiting high performance computing for their competitive advantage.

For additional information about the DBSR, please call 919-681-9646. or visit them at: www.bioinformatics.duke.edu.

Additional information SPSS is available on the World Wide Web through the SPSS press center at: www.spss.com/press.