We are excited to announce a program of live webinars for biologists taking place over the next six months on Bitesize Bio. They’ll be covering all kinds of topics that you need to know about; from how to get your manuscript published through basic cell culture to project management.

Kicking off the program is a series that will fill you in on the chemistry you need to know, but were too scared to ask. Here’s the schedule:

Feb 8: Chirality, R/S and D/L conventions
Feb 15: Chemical Reactions, Acid/Base Equilibria
Feb 22: Biological Organic Molecules
Mar 1: Biological Intermediates and Covalent Bonding

These live broadcasts, which will include the opportunity for Q&A, will take place at 16:00 GMT (11:00 EST / 8:00 PST)

Click on the links above to register to be part of the audience. Places are limited, so booking now is advisable. You can view the whole of Bitesize Bio’s webinar program by clicking here.

Are you a Principal Investigator, Lab Manager or Researcher?

We would like to talk to you about BioKM, a new web-based laboratory management tool that promises to be a flexible, affordable alternative to enterprise software systems. It makes it easier for laboratories to:

• Improve efficiency with project management tools that put information in context
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration
• Secure research data to ensure that it’s available for future use
• Reduce costs with more effective resource management

BioData is  conducting a limited number of telephone interviews to learn more about the way you work and your perceptions of BioKM.  Everyone we select to participate in the research will receive a complimentary 30-day trial of the beta product and a $50 Amazon gift voucher as a thank you for their time.

The insights we gain from the interview will be used for research purposes only and will be invaluable in ensuring that the branding and communications surrounding BioKM resonates with prospective users in the research community.

Click here to fill in the form to participate.

TEL AVIV, Israel–(BUSINESS WIRE)–BioData Ltd. announced today that Digital Science a new division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd., acquired an equity stake in BioData as part of their new strategy to focus on providing world-class software tools and services to scientists, managers and funders with the ultimate aim of making research more productive through the use of technology.

The activities of Digital Science will build on the reputation for editorial and technological excellence of its sister company, Nature Publishing Group (NPG), but will focus on technology-based solutions for research rather than scientific content. The new venture will combine Macmillan’s in-house capabilities with external expertise from a range of partners. Currently announced commercial partners include BioData, SureChem, and Symplectic.

BioData provides flexible, affordable laboratory management systems for scientists, principal investigators and lab managers. Its main service is an innovative web-based application that enables both small and large research groups to stay organized without resorting to more expensive, rigid enterprise software systems.

BioData is the brainchild of Jonathan Gross, who holds a BA in computer science and M.Sc. in Biotechnology from the Hebrew University. During his studies, Jonathan worked in several research labs, enabling him to better understand the challenges of running a research group and make use of his programming skills to support a variety of tasks and routines in the lab. These experiences provided the trigger and motivation for the formation of BioData in August 2007.

BioKM, BioData’s innovative online software-as-a-service (SaaS) tool for research management incorporates state-of-the-art technology that combines the ability to simplify research logistics together with powerful knowledge management tailored to life science research. BioKM enables researchers to easily manage their research, and coordinate group and individual projects. Furthermore, it ensures research continuity, understands the relation between different research entities, tracks research materials, documents, biological collections and much more. BioData is a community-driven company that has continuously worked with Principal Investigators and their students to better understand their needs and to improve its service.

“BioData’s system represents a new type of software tool for researchers,” said Timo Hannay, Managing Director of Digital Science. “It’s intuitive, flexible and cost-effective, and deserves to be widely used. We’re greatly impressed by the vision and achievements of Jonathan and his colleagues, and are excited to be working with them to further enhance their offering and grow the number of labs who can benefit from it. Scientific research is at the beginning of a transformative digital age, and BioData is one of a breed of new companies that will be powering it.”

“We are very happy to join forces with Digital Science, this is a great opportunity to continue to develop tools and services for the research community. Day-to-day laboratory work involves tedious tasks not always directly related to the discovery process. BioData’s main purpose is to become the lab gateway, enabling the researchers to focus on science and less on the logistics of doing science. BioData enables better teamwork and easier monitoring of the experiments held in the lab. This partnership will enable us to reach more labs and provide better tools for better research,” said Jonathan Gross, Co-CEO & Founder of BioData.

Apple’s iPad is making its way to the world of research labs. Biodata Inc. (www.biodata.com) is excited to announce that its flag service – BioKM™ – now fully supports Apple’s iPad, and that it plans to launch several specifically designed applications for research labs.

“We have seen large investments into equipment in research laboratories,” says Jonathan Gross, founder and co-CEO of BioData, “These laboratories need a modern tool to capture, integrate and protect the data generated. In most scenarios bench space is limited, we believe the iPad brings a new and fresh approach towards capturing research data and assisting in management of research laboratories. Our flagship product BioKM™ has been customized to fit and now fully supports the iPad”.

BioData is currently working on a dedicated iPad/ELN-like app for BioKM™ users. Researchers will be able to build experiments on their office computer and execute them on the iPad in the lab.

About BioData

Jonathan Gross who is co-CEO with Danny Klein founded BioData in 2007. BioData develops and markets BioKM™ – an online laboratory management tool that helps simplify and connect all aspects of research labs, both in industry and academia.

BioKM’s client base includes laboratories worldwide.

Learn more about BioKM and sign up for a free trial at www.biodata.com

No matter how good you are at PCR, you can always learn something from the speakers BitesizeBio.com have lined up for their Getting the Most out of PCR live online seminar series. These guy eat, sleep and drink PCR.

Next up they are showing “MIQE Guidelines Uncloaked”, in which Greg Shipley will give you the inside track on the requirements you need to satisfy to make sure your PCR results are suitable for publication. You’d be mad to miss it.

This event goes out live today (Tue 8th June) at 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern / 5pm BST (UK) / 6pm CET. Click here to secure one of the remaining places on this live event or to view the archived videos for this series, which now include:

Magic in Solution: An Introduction and Brief History of PCR
Speaker: Carl Wittwer

Obtaining Maximum PCR Sensitivity and Specificity
Speaker: Cameron N. Gundry Attendence: 125

Significance of Controls and Standard Curves in PCR
Speaker: Ian Kavanagh