Accelrys' SciTegic Pipeline Pilot can be found at the heart of many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies' informatics packages and enables researchers to integrate, mine and analyse vast amounts of scientific data.

The free release of its SciTegic Pipeline Pilot Student Edition should enable those academic groups working closely with industry partners to share their data more efficiently and enhance collaboration.

Accelrys will benefit from academic researchers developing new scientific application modules that help them in their own specific areas of research and should enhance the areas that the software can be used in.

These application modules will then be hosted in a free library on Accelrys' community website that will promote the sharing of these innovations and forge closer links between Accelrys, industry and academia.

Another benefit that Accelrys is no doubt aware of, is that by providing the software free to Universities it will familiarise industry's future decision makers with the software, increasing the likelihood that they will look to Accelrys to provide them with informatics solutions in the future

The software will come preloaded with components that enable statistical analysis, data reporting and application integration as well as letting academics select from various collections of software for varied applications in chemistry, DNA sequence analysis and gene expression.

"The broad availability of SciTegic Pipeline Pilot Student Edition will foster scientific exchange and collaboration. Commercial users of SciTegic Pipeline Pilot will get convenient access to an unparalleled amount of cutting edge science from academic researchers," said Mark Emkjer, CEO of Accelrys.

The release has been welcomed by various academic groups, with Professor Andrew Hopkins of the University of Dundee, UK and formerly with Pfizer believing that: "(the) release is great news for drug discovery in academia and industry".

"Universities can now benefit from the industry standard workflow tool and industry can gain from the sharing of innovative new protocols from academia. An interoperable informatics platform is exactly what is needed if we want to share knowledge and improve everyone's drug discovery productivity," he continued.