IO INFORMATICS ANNOUNCES MAJOR PRODUCT RELEASE - SENTIENT SUITE™ INCORPORATES FEEDBACK FROM ITS WORKING GROUP ON SEMANTICS FOR LIFE SCIENCE

BERKELEY, CA February 20, 2008 – IO Informatics, Inc. (www.io-informatics.com) today announced the release of the latest version of its next generation of informatics software, the Sentient Suite™.

“We are very pleased to release the latest version of Sentient to the Life Science research community. This represents a major advance for life science informatics and reflects IOI’s commitment to providing life science researchers with state-of-the –art applications to meet their informatics challenges. In addition to input from our customer base, the new version benefited from the knowledge and input received from our Working Group on Semantics for Life Sciences.” said the Company’s CEO, Robert Stanley. “With this release, Sentient applies semantic technology to deliver valuable, well-tested applications suitable for a broad range of end users. These applications make it possible for the first time to easily visualize and characterize complex, inter-related biomarker activity and apply the resulting knowledge at the point of care,” stated Stanley. “Sentient does this by bridging the gaps between our customers’ laboratory and experimental data, published research, clinical endpoints and individual patient information -- allowing researchers and clinicians to build and apply life sciences knowledge and make personalized medicine a reality.”

Dr. Erich Gombocz, IOI’s VP/Chief Scientific Officer and chair of the Semantics for Life Science Working group added, “Our interactions with our working group members allow us to identify areas in life science informatics that can take advantage of new methods and capabilities in the growing area of Semantics. Being able to merge datasets independent of their existing taxonomies or semantic standards is one of the key requirements towards coherent datasets to understand biological functions. Our working group, in its open exchange of ideas, has helped us to advance in the developement of intuitive semantics tools to facilitate researchers’ ability to understand the inherent complexity of multi-responsive systems. Beyond just pulling in data and accessing them in one place, through the use of Semantics, Sentient is able to couple all information available to a researcher with their own experience and expertise and move from raw data to useful knowledge.”

• The Sentient Knowledge Explorer™ is most effected by working group and semantic additions. It leverages the latest semantic web technologies to integrate, model, visualize and explore data, revealing networks and novel relationships in complex data sets from one or multiple sources - greatly aiding in tasks such as biomarker discovery and characterization. Results from database queries, formal ontologies and data in semantic formats can be imported and merged to dynamically build knowledge. Core enhancements include the ability to utilize multiple standards (RDF, N3, OWL, OBO) in combination, connecting directly via URIs, and the use of thesauri for classes and relationships on data import and merging.

• The Web Query™ gives users with no database expertise the ability to query and browse multiple data stores quickly and easily from any location using a web browser and to save the results in a number of different formats.

• The Process Manager™ is a complete workflow solution providing drag and drop modeling of your business process, coupled with an easy to use web-based user interface to guide users through their tasks and graphical dashboards allowing managers instantaneous status reports on project progress across the enterprise.

• The Data Manager™ (v3.1) delivers both ease-of-installation and ease-of-use for user-driven and automated data import and structuring. The Data Manager takes data from virtually any source and format and makes it available in the customer’s choice of uniform, standards-based formats, with integrated support for audit, curation, annotation, security and regulatory compliance. “The Sentient informatics framework provides deployment benefits appreciated by our customers’ financial officers, researchers and IT administrators,” said Chuck Rockey, IO Informatics’ Director of Software Engineering. “Depending on customer needs, we deploy components that complement existing systems and are suitable for use by scientists and clinicians with little computer expertise, as well as by advanced IT and informatics professionals,” he added.

For more information about IO Informatics software and services, please email info@io-informatics.com or contact Robert Stanley, CEO of IO Informatics at (510) 705-8470.

About IO Informatics
IO Informatics is at the forefront of a global revolution in software methods for data access and integration. IO Informatics’ Sentient suite of software products enables biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical and other life science researchers to structure and define complex data relationships, view these relationships, query them, and capitalize on them — all within a secure, compliant, auditable framework that helps organizations accumulate and leverage knowledge. Founded in 2003, IO Informatics is headquartered in Berkeley, California.

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