14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has released new resources designed to advance the technology and tools available to bioinformatics and biology researchers. The Microsoft Biology Foundation (MBF) started off as a project focused on Genomics research, but it evolved into two components, the Microsoft Biology Foundation (MBF) and the Microsoft Biology Tools (MBT). The Redmond company describes the release as a language-neutral bioinformatics toolkit developed as a .NET Framework extension. At the end of the past week, the software giant launched version 1.0 of the Microsoft Biology Foundation, according to Peter Galli, Open Source Community Manager for Microsoft's Platform Strategy Group.
“Currently, it implements a range of parsers for common bioinformatics file formats; a range of algorithms for manipulating DNA, RNA, and protein sequences; and a set of connectors to biological web services such as NCBI BLAST,” Galli explained. “The MBF executables, source code, demo applications, and documentation are freely downloadable.”
And of course the new resources are completely free of charge, seeing how Microsoft Biology Foundation 1.0 is in fact an open source project. MBF is available under the OSI-approved Microsoft Public License, which is an open source license. The Redmond company is hosting the source code and development of Microsoft Biology Foundation 1.0 on CodePlex, while all downloads are offered via Microsoft Research.
“We are happy to announce that the first full, stable version of the MBF library has been released for download! Though the source code can be obtained, evaluated and/or used at any snapshot in time, we have made a concerted effort to provide a robust, stable version for use by those whose research requires a high level of quality. Because the CodePlex.com organization has enforced a strict policy of not allowing downloads which contain dependencies on closed-source binaries, the installers and overall project information page has been moved to Microsoft Research,” the software giant added.
Microsoft Biology Foundation (MBF) 1.0 is available for download here. Follow me on Twitter @MariusOiaga.