Unleashed Informatics, the progeny of The Blueprint Initiative (my alma mater), a Genome Canada funded bioinformatics project, has been purchased by Thomson.  Unleashed houses several high quality biological databases including

• BIND (Biomolecular Interaction Network Database) containing 200,000 biomolecular interactions
• SMID (Small Molecule Interaction Database) containing over 23 million experimentally observed small molecule interactions
• BOND
  (Biomolecular Object Network Database) data warehouse that combines
  access to BIND and SMID data with publicly-accessible databases, plus
  similarity search algorithms

With Thomson providing the necessary stability and infrastructure to further build out the database and get this information to users, this is positive news, not just for Unleashed, but the broader scientific community.

Link: Announcement: March 20, 2007: Unleashed Informatics.

Stamford, CONN, USA, March 20, 2007 – The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) today announced that its Scientific business unit has acquired privately-held Unleashed Informatics Ltd, a life sciences data management company. Unleashed Informatics is the market leader in bioinformatics data and owns the largest repository of value-added bioinformatics records — a highly significant area for target-based drug discovery. Its management team and employees will become part of Thomson Scientific.

Over 11,000 researchers in more than 3,000 organizations worldwide rely on content, tools and
analytics from Unleashed Informatics to advance their life sciences investigations. Thomson
will continue to make complimentary versions of BOND and BIND available to Unleashed Open
Access registrants.

"The volume and variety of biological data being generated in laboratories worldwide
represents a profound scientific challenge," said Jon Brett Harris, executive vice president
of Pharmaceutical and Chemical Markets at Thomson Scientific. "The integration of Unleashed
Informatics with Thomson Scientific data, particularly the 8.5 million genetic sequences in
our GENESEQ database, will enable us to deliver greater value for research scientists working
in biology-driven drug discovery."

"Thomson has a compelling plan and capacity to satisfy life science information needs from
primary research through to product delivery," said Eric Andrade, president and CEO of
Unleashed Informatics. "This acquisition will enable the Unleashed mission to assemble,
integrate, and deliver real time access to man’s biomolecular knowledge."