White Point SystemsWHITE POINT SYSTEMS, INC.

PRESS RELEASE

CONTACT:
Gregg R. Dietzman
White Point Systems, Inc.
(360) 378-7292


FOR RELEASE: November 29, 1999

WHITE POINT SYSTEMS LICENSES NAPIS® LABORATORY FOR USE BY MOLECULAR NATURE LIMITED

(Friday Harbor, WA) -- White Point Systems, Inc. (a privately held company) announces today a licensing agreement for the NAPIS Laboratory database software to MolecularNature Limited located in Maidenhead, England and Aberystywth, Wales.

MolecularNature Limited (MNL) will use NAPIS to support the discovery of new natural products chemical compounds with important biological activities from temperate and tropical plants. From these natural resources, MNL will create libraries of semi-pure and pure chemicals for use in healthcare, agrochemical, cosmetics and other industries with their leading-edge expertise in natural products analytical chemistry. The MNL approach combines new technologies for discovery and information management together with old remedies known from folklore.

The NAPIS database software will support MNL by integrating the analytical chemistry and biological activity data together with the field biology and ethnobotany data to provide for query of important organism group / chemistry / biological activity relationships that are the basis for discovery. In addition, NAPIS will be used to track specimen and sample data for program management and administration. Groups providing natural products source materials to MNL will use the NAPIS Lite shareware for data entry and sample management in the field.

NAPIS (NAtural Products Information System) supports drug discovery researchers at the government, industry, and university level by providing a link between the library, laboratory, and the field. The incorporation of GIS technology allows traditional database tables to be related to spatial features on computer-based maps. Researchers can query using the GIS map and drill down on chemical structures, or vice versa, query on source organism / chemistry / bioactivity and show the results on a map. NAPIS is developed within a network environment but can also function autonomously, it is modular, scaleable and secure. The extended information handling requirements faced by drug discovery programs that screen natural products are met by the NAPIS technology, where they can be converted to assets for guiding future efforts and enhance the probability of success.

White Point Systems, Inc., is an innovative service company that supports the pharmaceutical industry with natural products chemistry programs, and the natural resource management industry with biodiversity assessment services. Programs serving both these industries focus on drug discovery and development using advanced technologies for information handling. NAPIS was developed in part with grant funds from the US National Cancer Institute, Small Business Innovation Research grant program. WPS has strategic alliances with Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) for GIS, and with Oxford Molecular Group and MDL Information Systems for chemical structure handling technologies.


Home - Company - Products - Services - Press - Contact Us - Tech Support

Copyright © 1997-2005, White Point Systems, Inc.