Prior to moving to the United States, Dr. Russell had a long career at AstraZeneca, where he was Global Head, Biological Science and Technology, with responsibility for the application of genomics, genetics and proteomics to both target discovery and the entire research and development process. Dr. Russell also has headed several functions, including Target Discovery, International Genomics and Biotechnology. Dr. Russell holds a Ph. D. in Physiology from Glasgow University, Scotland.

“We are extremely excited about getting Dr. Russell on board as we progress our Research as a Service (RaaS) offerings. Norrie brings leadership that is a unique blend of experience, education and enthusiasm to take Ocimum Biosolutions to the next level,” said Ms. Anu Acharya, CEO of Ocimum Biosolutions.

Dr. Russell added, “Ocimum’s vision to be the premier global provider of seamless quality support across the research, pre-clinical, and clinical spectrum is compelling. Their capabilities include a recent expansion of clinical trial support and GLP/CLIA compliant offerings. This vision resonates with me and is reflected in our customer base. I look forward to joining the team and helping make Gene Logic and Ocimum the ‘go-to’ company in genomics, genetics and informatics outsourcing.”

About Ocimum Biosolutions
Ocimum Biosolutions is an integrated global genomic services company with operations in Hyderabad, India, and Gaithersburg, MD (Gene Logic). We provide comprehensive (research level and GLP-compliant) genomic services, reference databases, and LIMS solutions. Our distinct platform “Research as a Service” (RaaS) allows complete outsourcing of genomics – from storing biological samples and performing on demand DNA and RNA based services to validating biomarkers using our proprietary databases and providing data and bioinformatic analysis. We have been chosen as a global preferred outsourcing provider for most of the top 25 pharma and biotech companies plus leading research institutes. Our partners recognize our wide-ranging expertise in genomics and genetic sciences, discovery and evaluation of gene targets and biomarkers, and sample analysis for clinical studies.

With our global infrastructure’s standardized procedures, capacity, and highly skilled staff, we are capable of supporting drug development programs from pre-clinical target development and toxicogenomic assessment to clinical biomarker identification and patient stratification. Our expertise is unparalleled and was gained through the creation of the world’s largest commercial gene expression databases – BioExpress® and ToxExpress®. Ocimum has been consistently ranked as India’s fastest growing biotechnology company and one of the fastest growing technology companies over the last five years by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

For more information, please visit www.ocimumbio.com.

The epoxide coated microarray slides are spotted with probes which target the miRNAs available in the latest (April 2010) mirBase Release 15 as well as many putative miRNAs. Apart from miRNA microarray chips, Ocimum also offers a complete range of customized services, from miRNA probe/chip design to suit specific experiments to end-to-end chip-to-analysis services.

Ms. Anu Acharya, CEO of Ocimum Biosolutions said “We have been offering the entire gamut of services – miRNA probe design, array design, spotting/printing, isolation, hybridization and bioinformatic analysis – for many years now. With this launch, we have bundled relevant services into a package making it even easier for researchers to work with us.”

She further added “With multiple arrays per slide, researchers will be able to perform multiple hybridization experiments per slide, making the OciChip™ miRNA kits very cost-effective compared to other providers.”

About miRNA Microarrays
miRNAs are small non-protein-coding RNA molecules that play a crucial role in development and life cycle of humans, animals and plants. They function as global regulators of gene expression by targeting specific mRNAs and play a significant role in disease manifestation. miRNAs either inhibit translation or promote mRNA degradation. miRNAs can also be hybridized to microarrays, slides or chips with probes to hundreds or thousands of miRNA targets, so that relative levels of miRNAs can be determined in different samples.

About Ocimum Biosolutions
Ocimum Biosolutions is a global integrated genomic services company with operations in Hyderabad, India and Gaithersburg, MD (Gene Logic). We provide comprehensive (research level and GLP-compliant) genomic services, reference databases, and LIMS solutions. Our distinct platform "Research as a Service" (RaaS) allows complete outsourcing of genomics – from storing biological samples and performing on demand DNA and RNA based services to validating biomarkers using our proprietary databases and providing data and bioinformatic analysis.  We have been chosen as a global preferred outsourcing provider for more than 75% of top 25 pharma and biotech companies plus leading research institutes. Our partners recognize our expertise for understanding disease mechanisms in correlation with discovery, prioritization of gene targets and biomarkers, and sample analysis for clinical studies.

With our global infrastructure’s standardized procedures, capacity, and highly skilled staff, we are capable of supporting drug development programs from pre-clinical target development and toxicogenomic assessment to clinical biomarker identification and patient stratification. Our expertise is unparalleled and was gained through the creation of the world’s largest commercial gene expression databases – BioExpress® and ToxExpress®. Ocimum has been consistently ranked as India’s fastest growing biotechnology company and one of the fastest growing technology companies over the last five years by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

For more information, please visit www.ocimumbio.com.

For queries related to this press release, please write to vinay.k@ocimumbio.com.

Biotracker™ Biobanking is a fully scalable, configurable, customizable, complete biobanking solution.  Now that Biotracker™ Biobanking is available as a Software as a Service (SaaS), biobanks will be able to utilize the system over the internet without the need for increasing their IT infrastructure or workload.

“Having run and managed biobanks for both our own labs and for a variety of customers for many years, Ocimum Biosolutions has demonstrable working expertise in this domain”, stated Anu Acharya, CEO of Ocimum Biosolutions.  “We leveraged our biobanking domain expertise when designing our Biotracker™ Biobanking solution and now we have leveraged our IT expertise to make Biotracker™ Biobanking available as a hosted service over the internet. This is a part of our ongoing efforts to bring RaaS (Research as a Service) to our partners”, continued Ms. Acharya. 

Biotracker™ Biobanking has specialized features that include a Requester Module, Donor/Patient and Biospecimen Management with full Genealogy, Unlimited Meta Data Annotation, Controlled Vocabulary and Synonyms, Data and Location Management, TMA, CMA, and much more. Biotracker™ Biobanking is caBIG® Bronze Certified, providing the highest degree of integratability and interoperability while also supporting Regulatory Compliancy (HIPAA, 21CFR11, GxP, CLIA, etc.)

About Biotracker™ Biobanking SaaS
Biotracker™ Biobanking SaaS offers an easy, "pay-as-you-go" solution for all current and long-term biobanking needs. Biotracker™ Biobanking SaaS now offers the benefit of a full featured Biobanking LIMS over the Internet to small and medium biobanking labs which previously would only be available within large enterprises. The intuitive user interface, ease-of-use and online access makes the adoption for use rate for Biotracker™ Biobanking SaaS very high by the lab personnel while simultaneously creating a better user experience. This greatly increases the likelihood of full utilization of all the system features yielding maximum value for a minimal investment.

For more details, please visit http://www.ocimumbio.com/lims2/products/biotracker-biobanking-saas/

About Ocimum Biosolutions
Ocimum Biosolutions is an integrated global genomic services company with operations in Hyderabad, India and Gaithersburg, MD. We provide comprehensive (research level and GLP-compliant) genomic services, reference databases, and LIMS solutions. Our distinct platform "Research as a Service" (RaaS) allows complete outsourcing of genomics – from storing biological samples and performing on demand DNA and RNA based services to validating biomarkers using our proprietary databases and providing data and bioinformatic analysis.  We have been chosen as a global preferred outsourcing provider for more than 75% of top 25 pharma and biotech companies plus leading research institutes. Our partners recognize our expertise for understanding disease mechanisms in correlation with discovery, prioritization of gene targets and biomarkers, and sample analysis for clinical studies.

With our global infrastructure’s standardized procedures, capacity, and highly skilled staff, we are capable of supporting drug development programs from pre-clinical target development and toxicogenomic assessment to clinical biomarker identification and patient stratification. Our expertise is unparalleled and was gained through the creation of the world’s largest commercial gene expression databases – BioExpress® and ToxExpress®. Ocimum has been consistently ranked as India’s fastest growing biotechnology company and one of the fastest growing technology companies over the last five years by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

For more information, please visit www.ocimumbio.com

“We, at Ocimum Biosolutions, are very excited about offering our Biotracker™ Lite LIMS as a Software as a Service system”, said Dr. Howard Rosenberg, VP Informatics of Ocimum Biosolutions.  “We believe that the combination of the world-class capabilities of the Biotracker™ Lite LIMS solution and the cost savings of delivering the system via a SaaS model will enable organizations that previously couldn’t afford a laboratory automation solution to now be able to realize all the benefits our system provides.”

Biotracker™ Lite SaaS offers a flexible and scalable platform that simplifies maintaining and operating laboratory automation solutions. It also provides on-demand computing capabilities and storage for laboratory data. Biotracker™ Lite SaaS offers a subscription based licensing model which allows for predictable payments without sacrificing flexibility and control.  Biotracker™ Lite SaaS will allow small and medium organizations to leverage all the benefits of a LIMS solution without the hassles that generally comes with on-site installation.

The Biotracker™ Lite SaaS platform can also be an essential part of a lab’s IT portfolio as it facilitates automating critical system management tasks, freeing IT to focus on the needs of laboratory personnel and users while providing scalable computing and storage capacity, eliminating the need for additional hardware to meet unpredictable spikes in usage.

About Biotracker™ Lite SaaS
Biotracker™ Lite SaaS is the "pay-as-you-go" solution that is designed to cut costs, avoid time consuming deployments and do away with inflexible systems. Biotracker™ Lite SaaS offers a flexible and scalable platform that simplifies maintaining and operating laboratory automation solutions. It also provides on-demand computing capabilities and storage for your laboratory data. Biotracker™ Lite SaaS will allow small and medium organizations to leverage all the benefits of a LIMS solution without the hassles that generally comes with on-site installation.
For more details, please visit http://www.ocimumbio.com/lims2/products/biotracker-lite-saas/

About Ocimum Biosolutions
Ocimum Biosolutions is an integrated global genomic services company with operations in Hyderabad, India and Gaithersburg, MD. We provide comprehensive (research level and GLP-compliant) genomic services, reference databases, and LIMS solutions. Our distinct platform "Research as a Service" (RaaS) allows complete outsourcing of genomics – from storing biological samples and performing on demand DNA and RNA based services to validating biomarkers using our proprietary databases and providing data and bioinformatic analysis.  We have been chosen as a global preferred outsourcing provider for more than 75% of top 25 pharma and biotech companies plus leading research institutes. Our partners recognize our expertise for understanding disease mechanisms in correlation with discovery, prioritization of gene targets and biomarkers, and sample analysis for clinical studies.

With our global infrastructure’s standardized procedures, capacity, and highly skilled staff, we are capable of supporting drug development programs from pre-clinical target development and toxicogenomic assessment to clinical biomarker identification and patient stratification. Our expertise is unparalleled and was gained through the creation of the world’s largest commercial gene expression databases – BioExpress® and ToxExpress®. Ocimum has been consistently ranked as India’s fastest growing biotechnology company and one of the fastest growing technology companies over the last five years by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

For more information, please visit www.ocimumbio.com.

The BioIT Consulting division has been conceptualized as a part of our vision for sharing our best practices and experience in life science informatics. The division comprises a multi-disciplinary group of technologists and scientists, who can partner in key areas including informatics study design, intelligent algorithm development, data analysis, management & validation, ontology study, annotations and hypothesis validation as well as IT services such as custom applications development, testing services, systems integration, and application maintenance and upgrade services. We have worked with clients in cutting edge functional areas including next-gen genomics, epigenetics, toxicogenomics, translational research, high-throughput screening and systems biology.

Ms. Anu Acharya, CEO of Ocimum Biosolutions said, “Having developed solutions for organizations across various niche sectors that include pharmaceutical biodiscovery, agriculture, nutraceuticals, and metagenomics, we have gained insights into their critical BioIT business requirements. Through our range of consulting, IT and analytics services, we hope to provide an entire array of enterprise IT and analysis solutions for life science organizations.”

Mr. Govind Rao Adireddi, Assistant VP, BioIT Consulting said, “Ocimum Biosolutions is poised to deliver excellence in the field of consulting services. Ocimum’s power is its ability to leverage its decade of experience and its leadership position in BioIT, especially in application development and data analysis to ensure its customers success. Having worked with most of the top pharma and biotech companies, Ocimum brings industry best practices to their customers. Our team is excited and committed to delivering excellence in this space.”

For more information, please visit www.ocimumbio.com/bioit.

About Ocimum Biosolutions
Ocimum Biosolutions is an integrated global genomic services company with operations in Hyderabad, India and Gaithersburg, MD. We provide comprehensive (research level and GLP-compliant) genomic services, reference databases, and LIMS solutions. Our distinct platform “Research as a Service” (RaaS) allows complete outsourcing of genomics – from storing biological samples and performing on demand DNA and RNA based services to validating biomarkers using our proprietary databases and providing data and bioinformatic analysis. We have been chosen as a global preferred outsourcing provider for more than 75% of top 25 pharma and biotech companies plus leading research institutes. Our partners recognize our expertise for understanding disease mechanisms in correlation with discovery, prioritization of gene targets and biomarkers, and sample analysis for clinical studies.

With our global infrastructure’s standardized procedures, capacity, and highly skilled staff, we are capable of supporting drug development programs from pre-clinical target development and toxicogenomic assessment to clinical biomarker identification and patient stratification. Our expertise is unparalleled and was gained through the creation of the world’s largest commercial gene expression databases – BioExpress® and ToxExpress®. Ocimum has been consistently ranked as India’s fastest growing biotechnology company and one of the fastest growing technology companies over the last five years by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

For more information, please visit www.ocimumbio.com.

In a project coordinated by Prof. John van der Oost, Ocimum Biosolutions constructed the genome microarray for Sulfolobus solfataricus – the archaeal model organism of choice for a systems biology approach to study the evolution and characteristics of central cellular functions in living cells.

Prof. John van der Oost said “We have very good experience with the mentioned microarrays, and we and other members of the Solfolobus Chip consortium were impressed by the quality of the slides provided.”

Ms. Anu Acharya, CEO of Ocimum Biosolutions said “For esteemed researchers like Prof. John van der Oost, who want to target specific genes, or small genomes, our OciChip™ custom microarrays have become the platform of choice. These cost-effective microarrays can be used on all open array platforms, unlike other proprietary technologies. In addition, our sophisticated bioinformatics expertise results in highly sensitive and specific microarrays. These twin benefits have helped us become the preferred partner of consortia like SulfoSYS.”

About SulfoSYS
In the SulfoSYS project, within the transnational SysMO initiative (http://www.sysmo.net/), 10 European partners study the central carbohydrate metabolism (CCM), i.e. the branched ED pathway of S. solfataricus and its regulation under temperature variation by the integration of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic, kinetic and biochemical information as well as modeling. The long term goal of the project is to build a sufficiently precise replica for this part of the living cell “a Silicon Cell” to enable computation of life, particular its robustness to changes in temperature, at the system level. For more information, please visit http://www.sulfosys.com.

About OciChip™ Custom Microarrays 
OciChip™ Custom microarrays are epoxy-coated glass slides onto which the sequences from thousands of different genes are immobilized, or attached, at fixed locations. First, for each gene of interest, 50 to 70 mer oligonucleotides are bioinformatically designed excluding dimers and, secondary structure formation, thereby ensuring highly reproducible hybridization achieved by precisely defined GC-content/melting temperature. Then, based on the researcher’s study objective, the layout of these oligonucleotides on the microarray is bioinformatically designed with maximal reduction of cross-hybridization & avoiding background contamination. The oligonucleotides are then synthesized and QCed using mass-spectrometry. These oligonucleotides are then mechanically micro-spotted on the epoxy-coated glass slides.
Note: Apart from oligonucleotides, Ocimum also spots genomic DNA clones, cDNA, proteins, peptides, lipids, carbohydrates, and other small molecules.

For more information, write to europe@ocimumbio.com or visit http://www3.ocimumbio.com/laboratory-sample-data-management/research-consumables/microarrays/

About Ocimum Biosolutions
Ocimum Biosolutions is an integrated global genomic services company with operations in Hyderabad, India and Gaithersburg, MD. We provide comprehensive (research level and GLP-compliant) genomic services, reference databases, and LIMS solutions. Our distinct platform "Research as a Service" (RaaS) allows complete outsourcing of genomics – from storing biological samples and performing on demand DNA and RNA based services to validating biomarkers using our proprietary databases and providing data and bioinformatic analysis.  We have been chosen as a global preferred outsourcing provider for more than 75% of top 25 pharma and biotech companies plus leading research institutes. Our partners recognize our expertise for understanding disease mechanisms in correlation with discovery, prioritization of gene targets and biomarkers, and sample analysis for clinical studies.

With our global infrastructure’s standardized procedures, capacity, and highly skilled staff, we are capable of supporting drug development programs from pre-clinical target development and toxicogenomic assessment to clinical biomarker identification and patient stratification. Our expertise is unparalleled and was gained through the creation of the world’s largest commercial gene expression databases – BioExpress® and ToxExpress®. Ocimum has been consistently ranked as India’s fastest growing biotechnology company and one of the fastest growing technology companies over the last five years by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

For more information, please visit www.ocimumbio.com.