Advances in molecular biology in the past few decades have seen the increasingly rapid sequencing of genomes. What used to take scientists 17 years to sequence the whole human genome is now increasing in speed. With the constant deluge of information that is resultant in such technological breakthroughs, a science dealing with the careful storage, organization and indexing of sequence information has been necessitated. This form of information science has been applied to biology to produce the field called Bioinformatics and concerns the creation and maintenance of databases of biological information, and the analysis of sequence information.

Nucleic acid sequences and the protein sequences derived from them comprise the majority of such databases. While the storage and organization of millions of nucleotides is far from trivial, designing a database and developing an interface whereby researchers can both access existing information and submit new entries is only the beginning.

Synamatix, the rising star in the Malaysian biotechnology scene, has been carving out its niche within the field with its patented platform technology SynaBASE. The database paradigm of SynaBASE utilises intelligent software with self-learning algorithms to allow faster identification and computation of information that is derived from hardware. SynaBASE has been developed into a comprehensive array of applications to service for the ever-growing field of high-throughput biological research and development.

The accurate and efficient manner in which such data mining is being conducted allows high-throughput and high-volume analysis to be conducted swiftly and has been shown to lower sequencing time and resources. In fact, one of the major goals of Synamatix is to provide the software basis of the US$1,000 genome sequence. The US$1,000 genome is a global target, in which the cost of sequencing of a whole human genome is aimed to be as low as US$1,000. Currently, high throughput, high volume analysis hardware is being developed and may hit the markets in a couple of years. Synamatix aims to facilitate such hardware with SynaBASE-based application to further increase their efficiency. In fact, this is the main reason behind the appliance of SynaBASE in many small, medium research centers as well, as the highly efficient software alludes to lowered costs.

Such developments are crucial for the progress of personalised medicine, one of the hottest topics in medical biotechnology of late. The efficiency of certain medications and drugs are related to the genetic makeup of the patient. Some drugs are more efficient on certain people than others. Personalised medicine takes such information into account and tries to match drugs and patients in an efficient manner. However, such research is not possible without more cost-effective methods for genetic analysis. That is where the US$1,000 genome comes into the picture.

The quality of R&D of the company shines through with the recommendation of their satisfied customers. In fact, reading through their customer’s list is like the A list of the scientific community, including Melbourne University and Washington University Genome Sequencing Center. It is no wonder Synamatix is making waves among the local industry of late.